In the latest change this week, asylum officers could send hundreds of thousands more asylum applications to immigration courts. "It's almost like a war on asylum," said Ruby Powers, an immigration attorney in Texas who represents asylum applicants across the country in immigration court and with USCIS. The new USCIS rule would let asylum officers refer an asylum application to the immigration court system within the Justice Department, where attorneys say it is now likely to get rejected. The decisions have aimed to cut the backlog of cases — though there are still some 2.4 million pending asylum applications, according to the Justice Department. Appeals made in immigration court go to an administrative panel called the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is made up nearly entirely of Trump appointees.