That's correct. If he had made a refugee claim in the United States, he would, under this system, only have access to a pre-removal risk assessment before people who are not independent, not expert, not trained and, at least under the present law and the law proposed, have no obligation to provide an oral hearing.
Given all of those factors, the risks of an erroneous refusal—that is, a false negative—are heightened, and that would lead to refoulement to a place where he has a reasonable fear of persecution.