- You've no doubt seen all the news about the thousands
of Central American families fleeing violent conditions
and making the long, dangerous journey to the U.S.
only to be caught by border patrol agents,
detained, and separated from their children.
- 2300 kids have already been separated from their parents
and they are staying in various places around the U.S.
- How can you separate illegal alien children from
their parents when the parents sent them here alone?
- We've been trying to figure out what our government
is doing with the babies and the kids
once they take them away.
- No matter where you stand on immigration,
it's a pretty rough situation to watch unfold.
One that's forced a lot of Americans to do some
serious soul searching about how far we should go
to safeguard our borders, and who should let in,
or keep out.
All this border drama has drawn serious attention
to a really small part of America's immigration system
that until recently, has largely slipped under the radar:
the process of seeking asylum.
That's when migrants arrive to the U.S. and ask
to be allowed to stay here permanently
because they fear being persecuted if they are sent
back home, in other words, punished because of who they are
or what they believe.
Even though the numbers of illegal border crossing arrests
are the lowest they've been since the 1970s,
the number of undocumented immigrants fleeing
Central America and requesting asylum in the U.S.
has gone way up in the last decade,
though there was also a big wave of asylum requests
from that region back in the 1980s and '90s
when civil wars plagued the region.
The Trump Administration and other folks
who wanna crack down on immigration say this spike
in asylum requests is clear evidence that immigrants
are gaming the system rather than going through
standard application process.
They say it's a loophole that has led to a big rise
in fraudulent claims, allowed more criminals
to enter the country and created a massive backlog
of court cases.
But a lot of immigration advocates say the increase
is due to the humanitarian crisis in Central American
countries, where violent crime has spiked out of control.
So how does the U.S. asylum process actually work?
And who is it intended to help?
To understand it, you gotta go way back to 1951.
That's when the members of the newly formed United Nations,
which included the U.S.,
drafted an agreement
that officially defined a refugee as someone fleeing
his or her homeland because of a strong fear of being
persecuted based on one of five categories:
race, religion, nationality, political opinion,
or membership in a particular social group.
This was only about five years after
the end of World War II.
The bloody conflict had forced millions of people
throughout war-torn Europe to flee their homelands,
creating a major global refugee crisis.
Just years earlier, a number of countries
including the U.S. had turned away boats
of Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust,
sending them back to Europe, where many ended up
being killed in Nazi concentration camps.
Building on the UN agreement, Congress passed
the U.S. Refugee Act in 1980,
which distinguished asylum seekers from refugees,
squarely on the basis of where they filed their application.
Both classes have to prove they have a well-founded
fear of persecution in their homelands,
which means the legit fear of being physically attacked,
tortured, detained, or killed.
But unlike refugees who go through the resettlement
screening process before coming to the U.S.,
asylum seekers are either entering at the border
or already inside the U.S. with a temporary visa,
and are asking to stay permanently.
Asylum advocates argue that this is an essential
option for people, like many in Central America,
who claim they need to leave their homes immediately
and don't have the option to go through the refugee
or visa application process.
And although the president determines the total number
of refugees the U.S. admits each year,
the number of people granted asylum is left open-ended.
So yeah, anyone can just show up and apply for asylum,
and if you end up getting it, it's a pretty big deal.
It means you can live and work legally in the U.S.
and apply for a green card after a year,
and eventually, apply for citizenship.
But don't forget, seeking asylum is a super risky path
to take.
That's because after making the long, dangerous journey
to get here, the odds of getting in are pretty darn small.
You're way more likely to be sent right back home.
An asylum seeker who arrives at the border can request
a credible fear screening at the official point of entry.
That's an interview with an immigration agent
who decides if the applicant really faces
a legit risk of being persecuted or tortured
if they're sent back home, as opposed to just, say,
seeking better economic opportunities.
They decide if that person gets a hearing
with an immigration judge, who will ultimately decide
if they are granted asylum or not.
The number of credible fear claims has skyrocketed
in the last decade, up by about 1500%.
Passing the credible fear screening is definitely
no guarantee of success.
It's just the first step in a long, difficult process,
and only a very small number of applicants
are actually granted asylum.
In 2016, for instance, there were more than 92,000
credible fear claims, but fewer than 21,000 people
were actually granted asylum.
And although that might sound like a lot,
people granted asylum make up only about 2% of the
roughly one million immigrants that legally
enter the U.S. every year.
Also, keep in mind that there are less than 400
immigration judges across the country,
scrambling to deal with a crazy high backlog
of more than 300,000 pending asylum cases.
So even if you make it past your credible fear screening
and get a court date, you might have to wait months,
or even years until you have a final decision.
And then there's the luck of the draw factor.
Whether or not someone gets asylum often comes down
to factors like what country you're from,
whether you have a lawyer,
and which judge you end up getting.
One recent investigation by Reuters reviewed nearly
identical asylum cases around the country,
and found that immigration judges in liberal coastal
regions like New York and the Bay Area
were much more likely to grant asylum
than judges in more conservative parts of the country,
particularly in the South.
To complicate things even more, what the government
considers legitimate persecution is also up for debate.
Until now, gang violence and domestic abuse
fell under the catch-all fifth category that the UN
came up with, membership in a particular social group.
But Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently announced
that those two factors should no longer be considered
qualifications for asylum.
He basically said that the U.S. can't take in everyone
who's having a hard time.
America has to draw the line somewhere,
and asylum should really be reserved for people
facing political, or religious persecution,
like it was originally intended.
This new policy would most negatively impact asylum seekers
from parts of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras,
an area known as The Northern Triangle,
which has some of the highest murder rates in the world,
equivalent to all-out war zones.
Gang violence there has shot way up in recent years,
and local governments have largely failed
to protect their citizens from violence,
forced gang recruitment, and extortion.
That, on top of some of the highest poverty rates
in the Western Hemisphere, make these pretty tough places
to live.
Asylum advocates insist this rule change takes away
a vital lifeline for people in really desperate situations.
They still face the real possibility of serious harm
or death if they return home.
So what do you think?
What are valid reasons for granting asylum?
Which asylum seekers should be let in,
and who should be turned away?
Let us know in the comments below,
and as always, like and subscribe.
And if you like this video, check out this one
on gerrymandering, and this one all about the U.S.
immigration system.
Oh, and one more thing.
PBS Digital Studios is conducting its annual
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This survey is one of the most important projects
we do every year because it helps us understand
who you are, what you like and don't like,
beyond what we can see in analytics.
35,000 responses last year helped us make decisions
on what experiments to try, and even what shows to make.
If you have a few minutes, please click the link.
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