What Is Political Asylum and How Often Is It Extended to Immigrants?

Political asylum is occasionally granted to applicants in the United States, but it’s often difficult to obtain due to inconsistent interpretation of U.S. laws. An estimated 60 percent of all asylum petitions are rejected.

The United States, along with 37 other open market democracies, are part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). One of the things member countries are supposed to do is accept eligible refugees fleeing persecution.

Although the U.S. accounts for 25 percent of OCED population, we accept only 10 percent of refugees seeking asylum in member countries. From 2010 to 2014, a period with relatively compassionate and pro-immigration governance, the U.S. still ranked 28 out of 43 industrialized nations in per capita refugee admissions.

Meeting the Asylum Criteria

Immigrants applying for asylum in the United States must:

• Be able to prove they face potentially violent persecution in their home country
• Belong to a persecuted group, which could include race, religion, nationality, political opinions or a social group

Even if an immigrant meets those criteria they still might not be accepted. The federal government groups refugee applicants into three different categories.

Priority one, the highest priority, are those who face a clear risk for imminent harm in their country of origin. At-risk women, torture victims, disabled peoples and those in need of emergency medical attention tend to go to the top of the priority one list.

Priority two is granted to special concern groups, which are often defined through congressional acts. Jewish, Evangelical Christian and Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox refugees from Soviet Bloc countries are one example of a group previously tagged for special concern. Cuban human rights activists, religious minorities, political prisoners and forced-labor conscripts were another. After the Vietnam War, Vietnamese people who were eligible for evacuation but were unable to flee with the withdrawing U.S. forces were a special group.

Most recently, Afghans who worked with the U.S. government, non-government organizations, media organizations or those who were activists, religious minorities or at-risk women were given priority two status.

Priority three status is reserved for family reunification, which means family members of people who already reside in the United States legally but don’t meet priority one or priority two requirements.  

Caps on Refugees

The United States uses what’s known as a “refugee quota.” The Executive Branch sends their proposed maximum number of refugees to Congress each year. Both anti-immigration and pro-immigration advocates lobby for adjustments to this “refugee ceiling.” The quota does not require congressional approval and it’s generally not debated.

The recent refugee ceiling peek was 2017 at 110,000 refugees, although only about 85,000 refugees were actually settled in the U.S. that year. The ceiling has decreased precipitously since then. The Trump administration set the 2020 ceiling at 18,000 and the 2021 ceiling at just 15,000. The Biden administration raised the 2021 ceiling to 62,500 on May 3, 2021. He also pledged to increase the ceiling to 125,000 in 2022. 

Expanding What Constitutes Persecution

Many immigrants from Central America that reach our Southern border are fleeing gang violence. Many of those individuals face a real risk if they’re forced to return home. However, many of these asylum seekers are currently turned away because some U.S. officials do not consider people who might be the victim of gang violence to be a social group.

Some estimates suggest as much as 10 percent of Northern Triangle residents have fled their home countries to seek refuge from gang violence. They represented 37 percent of asylum applicants between 2015 and 2017. However, there’s a significant disparity in who is granted asylum based largely on the disposition of the judge or arbitrator hearing their case. For example, New York judges granted asylum requests in more than 75 percent of cases in 2017, while Atlanta judges denied asylum requests in 90 percent of cases.   

Get Help With Your Asylum Case in Duluth

Every refugee’s situation is unique, as is every adjudicator who makes determinations about a refugee’s asylum request. That unfortunately means there’s a somewhat random component at work in refugee application. The case made on your behalf can play a significant role in the success of your asylum claim.

Asylum seekers in the U.S. are more likely to succeed in court if they’re represented by immigration attorneys with experience in asylum matters. At The Cotto Law Group, we take pride in helping clients find safety in Georgia.

Call us at (770) 817-7581 for an asylum consultation.