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On November 19, 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (collectively, the Departments) adopted an interim final rule (IFR or rule) that modified existing regulations providing for the implementation of recent Asylum Cooperative Agreements (ACA), agreements formed between the United States and foreign countries that commit to adjudicating the asylum claims of aliens removed to those countries. In certain circumstances, an ACA, in conjunction with section 208(a)(2)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (the Act”), both (i) bars an alien subject to the agreement from applying for asylum in the United States, and (ii) authorizes the removal of the alien to a country that will adjudicate his or her asylum claim. The interim rule applies to all ACAs between the United States and countries other than Canada, since an agreement between the United States and Canada was implemented by regulation in 2004. The United States recently entered into bilateral ACAs with Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras in an effort to share the distribution of asylum claims and established the authority of USCIS asylum officers to make threshold determinations as to whether aliens are ineligible to apply for asylum and removable under those ACAs, and any future ones, in interviews conducted under section 235(b)(1)(B) of the Act, 8 U.S.C. 1225(b)(1)(B). Further, the rule established the authority of immigration judges to make such determinations in the context of removal proceedings conducted under section 240 of the Act, 8 U.S.C. 1229a. The interim rule applies only prospectively to aliens who arrived in or entered the United States on or after the effective date of the rule, which was December 19, 2019. The Departments are reviewing comments received on the interim rule and will publish a final rule addressing those comments and finalizing the regulations changed by the interim rule.