5. Department of Homeland Security · Notable · Needs Congress
Raise the credible fear standard to match the asylum standard
Printed page 148 5. Department of Homeland Security
“The standard for a credible fear of persecution should be raised and aligned to the standard for asylum. It should also account specifically for credibility determinations that are a key element of the asylum claim.”
What has happened
- Not started
The credible fear standard remains where Congress set it in 1996. No statute has raised it or aligned it with the asylum standard, and no rule found makes credibility determinations part of the screening. The D.C. Circuit's June 2026 decision in Make the Road New York (see #316) leaves the existing screening procedures in place rather than changing the standard.
No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
A Requires-Congress ask about a statutory standard.
Searched, in the federal records we keep (fetched 2026-08-28): presidential documents, final rules, proposed rules and notices in the Federal Register, filtered to DHS and its components; bills in Congress and public laws, from congress.gov; White House presidential actions; and federal court dockets (CourtListener), including the bulk snapshot of 1.2 million dockets. No bill raising the credible fear standard to the asylum standard passed either chamber; the Asylum Reform and Loophole Closure Act (S. 3488) and the Protecting Asylum Integrity Act (S. 4771) were read twice and referred. Federal Register full-text search for “credible fear” over the window returns seven rules, none of which raises the standard.
- Action
- restrict
- Object
- credible fear of persecution standard
- ID
- 353