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By Marni Rose McFall
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Two thirds of asylum seekers in U.S. immigration courts over the past decade have been legally entitled to remain in the country, according to a recent report.
The Context
A data analysis from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University comes amid ongoing debates over U.S. immigration policies and the treatment of asylum seekers. The Biden administration has been working to reform the immigration system, including efforts to reduce court backlogs and ensure fair adjudications.
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What We Know
From the 2014 fiscal year to April 2024, immigration judges adjudicated just over one million removal cases in which the immigrant filed an asylum application.
Out of these 1,047,134 cases, 685,956 immigrants were granted asylum or another form of relief from deportation, allowing them to stay in the U.S., according to the analysis by TRAC.
In contrast, 332,552 immigrants were ordered removed, and 28,626 were issued voluntary departure orders.
The report indicates that the success rates for asylum seekers have varied across different administrations. During the Obama administration, about 30-35% of asylum applicants were unsuccessful and ordered deported, with the rest being allowed to stay either through asylum grants or other relief measures.
Many of these cases were administratively closed as part of prosecutorial discretion policies aimed at prioritizing the removal of individuals with criminal convictions​, the TRAC report said.
Under the Trump administration, the number of asylum seekers granted relief initially increased until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a significant drop in court dispositions. During this period, the policy of closing cases under prosecutorial discretion ended, resulting in a higher proportion of deportation orders. On average, 57% of asylum applicants were ordered removed during President Donald Trump's term.
In contrast, the Biden administration has seen a marked increase in the proportion of asylum seekers allowed to remain in the U.S., with 77% of applicants being granted relief from deportation, and only 22% ordered removed thus far. This increase is partly attributed by TRAC to efforts to expedite decisions on recent cases and close older cases that do not pose a threat to public safety or national security.
Newsweek spoke to Hector Quiroga, an immigration attorney who represents asylum seekers hoping to reside in the U.S. permanently. He said, "Individuals who apply for [asylum programs] are heavily vetted before they can be approved, before they set foot in the U.S."
He explained that "the vast majority of our clients applying for asylum have filed defensive asylum applications – they present themselves at the border and request asylum, and, after submitting to a credible fear interview, they are placed into a legal process and given an opportunity to make their case for why they should be allowed to remain in the U.S before an immigration judge."
What's Next
The report's findings come as immigration remains a key issue for voters in the presidential election in November.
Encounters between migrants and U.S. Border Patrol at the country's southern border have dropped since February, and totaled 128,884 in April, a 35 percent drop year-on-year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
"We will remain vigilant to continually shifting migration patterns," said senior CBP official Troy A. Miller in an April statement, "We are still experiencing challenges along the borders and the nation's immigration system is not appropriately resourced to handle them, so we continue to call on Congress to take action that would provide our personnel with additional resources and tools."
In Congress, Democrats have pushed for humanitarian-focused approaches to immigration issues, and Republicans have emphasized stronger border protection policies, with little common ground on the issue.
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