Here’s how asylum works, as 28 migrants land in Philadelphia from Texas
Thousands of migrants who arrive at the U.S. border each year apply for asylum, which at base is a protection from persecution
Most or all of the immigrants who got off a bus from Texas at 30th Street Station on Wednesday morning are seeking asylum, a simple term for a challenging and potentially lifesaving process.
Thousands of migrants who arrive at the U.S. border each year apply for asylum, which at base is a protection from persecution.
It’s a completely legal means to seek safety in the United States.
But gaining that protection — and with it the permission to live in the United States and pursue citizenship — is not easy. And the United States has forced thousands of asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico, under the so-called Remain in Mexico protocols, as their cases go through U.S. Immigration Court.
Foreign nationals seeking asylum must show they are unable or unwilling to return to their homeland because they have been persecuted or have “a well-founded fear” of future persecution.
Additionally, that persecution must stem from a specific source. It’s not enough for asylum-seekers to show they have been harmed. That harm must be a result of their race, religion, nationality, politics, or membership in a particular social group.
To gain asylum, seekers must undergo what’s called a “credible fear” interview with immigration officials. The burden of proof rests on the asylum-seekers. Their own testimony is deemed critical, though immigration attorneys say that such testimony is too often rejected as insufficient.
In fiscal year 2019, the United States granted asylum to about 46,500 people, the highest level in decades. That was a result of increasing applications and a faster pace of adjudications, according to the Migration Policy Institute in Washington.
The right to protection in another country sprang from the violence of World War II and the Holocaust, enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and later in U.S. federal law in the Refugee Act of 1980, the ACLU notes in a brief on asylum.
People who are granted asylum gain protection from being returned to their home country and authorization to work. They can petition to bring family members to this country. Four years after becoming lawful permanent residents they can seek citizenship, according to the American Immigration Council in Washington.
People must apply for asylum within a year of entering the United States.