For asylum seekers, a fickle system

Amid the national debate over immigration reform, asylum has been largely overlooked.

from the July 3, 2007 edition

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For those who do, it helps to be Russian. Russians won asylum 64 percent of the time, according to a recent study of high-volume immigration courts between 2000 and 2004. At the other end of the scale were Colombians (36 percent), Venezuelans (26 percent), and Haitians, the lowest of all, at 16 percent.

Nor are courts consistent from city to city. Haitians got asylum 27 percent of the time from a federal immigration court in New York, whereas a court in Miami granted Haitians asylum only 15 percent of the time, according to the study. Albanians got asylum 65 percent of the time in San Francisco; in Detroit, only 17 percent. The study also found that female judges granted asylum at a higher rate than did male judges.

"There's a great deal of randomness and disparity in the system that seems at odds with the rule of law," says Philip Schrag, of the Center for Applied Legal Studies at Georgetown University Law Center and an author of the study.

Asylum seekers who present themselves voluntarily to immigration officials usually fare better than those who, like the Haitians apprehended on Hallandale Beach, get caught. Voluntary seekers make their case to US Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security. If they're denied there, they can go through the immigration courts. In 2005, Haitian applicants made up 17 percent of all voluntary seekers granted asylum, more than any other ethnic group.

Those who get caught – and thus go directly to immigration court – don't win asylum so easily. The US typically grants asylum to those who fear persecution because of their politics, race, nationality, or religion. But certain observers caution that some applicants, especially from impoverished nations like Haiti, are fleeing economic problems, not political ones.

Asylum "can be pretty valuable," says James Carafano, who studies homeland security at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington. "Getting into the US ... is an incredibly marketable commodity."

Unlike Cubans, who are well-organized politically, Haitians have little clout in the US, which compounds their immigration problems, says Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami. She says US officials have determined that most of the Haitian detainees in Pompano Beach have a credible fear of persecution if they're returned to Haiti – an early step in the approval process. But immigration officials won't confirm this, saying they can's discuss specific cases.

US Rep. Kendrick Meek, a Democrat whose district includes part of Hallandale Beach, has asked US immigration officials to release those who have demonstrated "credible fear" so they can better prepare for trial. But detention is usually mandatory in such cases, says a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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