AG Barr has used a process called 'certification' to issue a decision that closes the door on most asylum seekers who fear persecution due to family ties, overturning years of precedent.
Most federal courts are part of the judicial branch, but immigration courts are part of the executive branch, and are thus controlled by the Justice Department. The attorney general runs the Justice Department. He is both the nation's top prosecutor and, in the case of immigration courts, its top judge.
But the Trump Justice Department is on pace to outstrip any prior administration in rendering these rulings. Its three attorneys general have issued decisions in seven cases in the last two and a half years. Three are pending.Certification can be an important tool in resolving legal questions and clarifying complex matters of law, said Dan Cadman, a former immigration official and current fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for limiting immigration.
Early in his tenure, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a decision in a case called Matter of A.B. that claimed most immigrants fleeing domestic and gang violence did not qualify for asylum. The application of that decision is now being challenged in a federal lawsuit.The decisions have also affected the daily workings of the court. Sessions eliminated the ability for judges to administratively close cases, a tool they had often used to move dockets along more quickly.
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