Asylum Rejection Rates Rise in Donald Trump’s Immigration Courts

Detainees walk with their hands clasped behind their backs along a line painted on a walkw
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
Neil Munro

The nation’s asylum judges are accelerating through the huge backlog of asylum requests by migrants and illegals, and are denying claims at a higher rate than under the prior administration.

In 2019, President Donald Trump’s judges in the immigration courts processed 67,520 asylum claims, or three times the 22,319 cases in 2016, according to data provided by TRAC Reports Inc, at Syracuse University.

In 2019, the courts denied 69 percent of asylum claims. That is 10 points above the 2016 rejection rate of 59 percent,

So the courts denied 46,755 asylum requests in 2019, four times the 12,188 requests that were denied in 2016.

More cases are being processed because the Department of Justice has added judges and streamlined the process.

The backlog of all court cases rose from 768,257 cases at the end of 2018, to 1 million cases at the end of 2019, as almost 1 million Central American migrants arrived at the southern border. The backlog has risen to 1.1 million since October 2019 as more of the 2019 migrants filed their asylum claims.

Fewer asylum claims are being filed in 2020 because of Trump’s asylum reforms.

The time taken to complete each immigration case is 711 days in 2020. That is slightly lower than the 2018 backlog of 718 days, despite the huge inflow in 2019.

But that backlog is a huge problem, partly because it gives migrants more time in the United States to get jobs and hide from enforcement authorities.

The asylum requests came from people who crossed the border and asked for asylum, and also from people who ask for asylum as they face deportation. The requests came from a variety of people, including victims of political and ethnic oppression, women fleeing spousal abuse, men fleeing criminal gangs, people seeking medical treatment, as well as from economic migrants and migrant criminals.

The bulk of 2019 asylum claims came from the three ‘Northern Triangle’ countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

In 2019, the courts processed 35,7600 asylum requests from those three countries, up from 8,534 claims in 2016.

In 2019, the immigration courts rejected 84 percent of asylum claims made by Central American migrants. That rejection rate is up from 2016 when the courts rejected 74 percent of claims.  In 2016, 6184 Central Americans were denied asylum. In 2019, that number rose five-fold when 29,900 Central Americans were denied asylum.

But the courts have also faced a growing wave of asylum claims from China and India.

In 2016, judges approved 84 percent of asylum requests by 4,016 Chinese asylum-seekers.  In 2019, the courts approved 74 percent of requests from 4,903 Chinese asylum-seekers.

In 2016, judges denied amnesty in 214 of 575 claims by Indians, or 37 percent. In 2019, judges denied amnesty to 37 percent of 3,258 Indian applicants, which was a six-fold numerical increase over 2016.

 

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.