US Asylum Requests Surge, Bulk of Requesters Largely from Central Americans Alicia A. Caldwell - Associated Press
go to original July 17, 2013

In a rare move a US immigration judge granted 30-year-old native of Ciudad Juarez, Christian Chaidez, a safe haven after considering extortion was the reason for the systematic targeting of his family. Angela Kocherga reports. (KHOU 11 News)

WASHINGTON — Requests for asylum in the United States have nearly quadrupled in the last five years, mostly due to claims by immigrants coming from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, according to internal figures from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement obtained by The Associated Press.

According draft testimony for USCIS Associate Director Joseph Langlois that was to be submitted for a congressional hearing on asylum requests last month, USCIS received more than 19,119 asylum requests through the end of May. The agency anticipates receiving more than 28,600 by the end of the fiscal year.

According to the testimony, during the 2009 budget year the agency received just 5,369 such requests.

In the drafted comments, Langlois said about 2/3 of the requests have come from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala... attributing the spike in asylum requests from Central Americans to reports of increased drug trafficking, violence and overall rising crime in those countries.

Read the rest at The Washington Post

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