What Applicants Need to Know About the Latest DHS Announcement On July 27, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced an important change to the affirmative asylum process that could affect thousands of applicants with pending cases. Under a new interim final rule, USCIS may now refer certain affirmative asylum applications directly to an Immigration Judge without first conducting an asylum interview. For many applicants, this represents a significant p
