31 July 2006

Disparities in U.S. Asylum Rulings

The New York Times announced that a report released today by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) found significant variations in the asylum decisions of the 208 immigration judges within the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR). Examples of findings include:

- Variability among judges: "Denial rates for the 208 judges ranged from a low of 10% to a high of 98%."
- Legal representation: "While having a lawyer by no means ensures success -- 64% of these requests are denied -- the denial rate for those without it is far higher, 93%."
- Nationality of asylum-seeker: "Since FY 2000, more than 80 percent of individuals from El Salvador, Mexico and Haiti...have been denied asylum. At the other extreme are asylum seekers, while less numerous, from Afghanistan and Burma whose odds of denial are less than 30 percent."

TRAC reports on asylum law and process will be available 10 August 2006.

Posted in Publications.

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