Valerie writes:
The number of asylum cases before U.S. immigration judges rose nearly 39 percent in the first year of the Trump administration – and is on course to increase again in 2018, according to new federal data.
In 2017, 62 percent of asylum applications were denied. So far in 2018, 65 percent have been denied – an increase of 14 percentage points compared to five years ago, the data shows.
Nationwide, immigration judges ruled on 25,741 asylum cases as of May 29, 2018, the most recent period for which data is available. That averages out to more than 3,200 cases per month. Even for a partial year (the fiscal year runs October 1 – September 30), it’s a 44 percent increase compared to 2014, when just under 17,925 cases were heard and 51 percent were denied.
And 2018 could be a record year: U.S. immigration judges ruled in nearly as many asylum applications in the first eight months of FY2018 as they did in all of 2017, when they issued 28,408 decisions, according to a Daily Mail analysis of data from the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
At the same time, the likelihood of whether an immigrant’s asylum application will be successful varies dramatically depending on the state in which their case is heard. New York was the most likely to welcome asylum seekers, with only 34 percent denied in 2018, while immigration judges in North Carolina and Georgia had a 96 percent denial rate.
The likelihood of whether an immigrant’s application will be successful varies dramatically depending on the state in which their case is heard. New York was the most likely to welcome asylum seekers, with only 34 percent denied in 2018, while immigration judges in North Carolina and Georgia had a 96 percent denial rate
Nevada was the next most-likely to deny asylum seekers, with a 95 percent denial rate, followed by Nebraska (93 percent) and New Mexico (91 percent). Among the states with the lowest denial rates were Hawaii (35 percent), Maryland (40 percent) and Massachusetts (45 percent).
‘It’s a problem,’ said Paul Wickham Schmidt, a former immigration judge and board member at the Executive Office of Immigration Review who retired after 13 years on the bench. ‘These are life or death cases. It suggests to me that when you’re walking in to some courts, no matter what you present you’re going to be denied because it’s been prejudged. That isn’t fair.’
The numbers are relevant now more than ever, as thousands of migrant parents are held in detention centers around the country, awaiting having their cases heard – and word on whether they will be reunited with their children. More than 2,000 kids have been separated from their parents since Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy took effect in April.
Reports of children being locked in cages and images of them weeping for their parents created political pressure that ultimately forced the Trump administration to reverse course on the separation issue, but officials have not provided an explanation on if or when those parents will be reunited with their children – and in what conditions the families will be held.
Asylum cases can take months or years, and it’s unclear whether the new numbers represent a rise in asylum applications, or if they reflect an increased, more rapid caseload for judges, though there are several theories.
Nationwide, nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of the almost 26,000 people whose asylum cases were heard through May 29 of fiscal year 2018 were denied
Jeremy McKinney, a member of the executive committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, attributes the overall increase in caseload to a combination of factors, including the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Northern Triangle countries of Central America, which are El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
‘Their most vulnerable — women and children, are fleeing widespread violence stemming from gangs, corrupt government actors, and domestic violence,’ he said. ‘This uptick in applications started during the last administration and continues today because nothing is being done to address the domestic problems plaguing El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.’
In addition, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has increased arrests of people who had no criminal history other than the misdemeanor of entering the country illegally. For many of those people the only chance at avoiding deportation is an asylum claim, and those cases will increase the docket, McKinney said.
It’s also likely that immigration judges are also hearing cases more quickly because they are under pressure by the Department of Justice to get through the significant case backlog, Schmidt said.
The asylum caseload is not evenly distributed among states, though there are more judges in regions with a higher volume of cases. New York had the highest caseload of asylum seekers, accounting for nearly 19 percent of the country’s applications heard so far in 2018, according to federal data.
California came in second, with 16 percent of the total caseload and a 60 percent denial rate, followed by Texas, which handles more than 14 percent of the caseload and has an 87 percent denial rate.
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Read the rest of Valerie’s article at the link.
Rather than making a good faith attempt to fix the severe Due Process problems plaguing the Immigration Courts, or addressing the humanitarian refugee situation in the Northern Triangle, the Trump Administration is purposely making the system worse and more unfair for asylum seekers and actually aggravating the horrible human rights problems in the Northern Triangle.
PWS
06-22-18