Setting the Record Straight on Asylum Requests at US-Mexico Border Eleanor Acer - Human Rights First
go to original August 14, 2013

Over the last few days, several news outlets have produced pieces relating to protection requests at the border that reflect - and sow - confusion about the complex expedited removal system and the asylum process. Some fact-checking is in order.

A few pieces claimed that 200 people attempted to enter into the United States from Mexico on a single day last week claiming a “credible fear” of “the drug cartels,” and mislabeled the expedited removal law’s credible fear process as a “loophole” in our immigration system, implying, wrongly, that it is some kind of unfettered avenue that allows anyone to cross our borders for no compelling reason. In fact, it is a limited but crucial safeguard designed to ensure that the United States does not summarily deport an individual fleeing from persecution without first assessing their protection request.

Some reports also confuse the passing of a “credible fear” screening interview with an actual grant of asylum, and that initial screening process with the overall immigration removal process. One report speculated that the surge in protection requests appeared to have been spurred by the “Dream 9,” a group of young people who sought to protest the deportations conducted by the Obama Administration by entering the U.S. detention and deportation system at the border. Several news reports, including a FoxNews.com piece, mistakenly reported that these young people were actually granted asylum. They were not.

U.S. immigration officers reportedly determined that the Dream 9 should not be summarily deported based on a “credible fear” screening interview, and put them into the immigration removal process. While this means that they can apply for asylum in that removal process, it certainly does not mean that they will be granted asylum.

The FoxNews.com piece also opined that “by claiming they have a ‘credible fear of persecution’ if returned to Mexico, the immigrant is entitled to a series of interviews, hearings, proceedings and appeals that can drag on for years.” In fact, the credible fear process itself is intentionally designed to be resolved in a matter of weeks .Immigration court removal proceedings, on the other hand, must often wait for years for a hearing date due to the continued under-resourcing of the immigration court system. For a refugees seeking protection from persecution, these delays are not some kind of perk; instead they leave them in limbo for years, and often leave their children stranded in difficult and dangerous situations abroad.

To clarify these misunderstandings, read the rest at Human Rights First

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