Appendix D.

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS) AND THE INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ACT (IRFA)

The Department of Homeland Security has assumed responsibilities formerly charged to the Immigration and Naturalization Service under the IRFA. The DHS is committed to ensuring that all claims for refugee and asylum protection are treated with fairness, respect, and dignity and that all mandates of IRFA for these programs are properly implemented. This appendix summarizes the Department's actions during FY2004, as required under Section 102 (b)(1)(E) of IRFA.

I. Training of Asylum Officers and Refugee Adjudicators

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) provides extensive training to Asylum Officers to prepare them to perform their duties of adjudicating asylum claims. The training covers all grounds on which an asylum claim may be based, including religion. Asylum Officers receive approximately five weeks of specialized training related to international human rights law, non-adversarial interview techniques, and other relevant national and international refugee laws and principles. (1) During the five-week course and in local asylum office training, USCIS provides Asylum Officers with specialized training on religious persecution issues.

With the passage of IRFA in 1998, the five-week training program expanded to incorporate information about IRFA as a part of the regular curriculum. In addition, a continual effort is made to include further discussion of religious persecution whenever possible in both the five-week course and in local asylum office training.

The Asylum Division regularly updates its training materials and conducts training in local asylum offices to reflect any recently issued documents on religious persecution from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees as well as any recent developments in case law on this issue.

USCIS developed specialized training for refugee officers, the Refugee Application Adjudication Course (RAAC) as mandated by IRFA. The course currently consists of two-weeks of intensive instruction in refugee law and overseas refugee processing procedures. USCIS officers who are responsible for adjudicating refugee applications attend the course. The refugee law portion of RAAC was largely adapted from the Asylum Officer Basic Training Course (AOBTC) and new modules were developed specifically for overseas refugee processing. The RAAC curriculum pays special attention to religious persecution issues.

In addition to RAAC, USCIS also provides preparatory training to officers who are embarking on short-term overseas refugee-related assignments. This training includes detailed information on religious topics that will be encountered on the overseas assignment.

The Resource Information Center (RIC) in the Asylum Division of the Office of Asylum and Refugee Affairs serves both Asylum Officers and Refugee Adjudicators, and is responsible for the collection and/or production and distribution of materials regarding human rights conditions around the world. The RIC has published an online guide to web research that is posted on the internal DHS website, the Intranet. An Intranet site was created with links to government and non-government websites that contain information on religious persecution. The RIC separately catalogues religious freedom periodicals and separately codes RIC responses to field queries that involve religious issues.

II. Guidelines for Addressing Hostile Biases

Starting in 2002, USCIS included specific anti-bias provisions in the language services contract used by Asylum Officers in the Asylum Pre-Screening Program.

The contract and interpreter oath also include special provisions that ensure the security and confidentiality of the credible fear process.

(1) Asylum Officers are required to complete two five-week training courses, the Adjudication and Asylum Officer Basic Training Course (AAOBTC), and the Asylum Officer Basic Training Course (AOBTC). The AAOBTC covers the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and basic immigration law. The AOBTC includes international human tights law, asylum and refugee law, interviewing techniques, decision-making and decision-writing skills, effective country conditions research skills, and computer skills. In addition compulsory, in-service training for all asylum officers is held weekly.