Putting TRAC to Work
  Policy and Public Interest Groups
Texas Public Policy Foundation
July 2016

The Inefficient U.S. Immigration System: A Texas Perspective
By Katherine Fidler, Ph.D


Under current immigration law, once apprehended, an unauthorized person may request a hearing to determine his eligibility for relief from removal. The common reasons for such claims of relief concern the applicant’s assertion that, if returned to his country of origin, he faces a credible fear of persecution. To determine if a credible fear of persecution does exist and if asylum should be granted, the person must be granted a hearing in front of one of the nation’s immigration courts. As apprehension of unauthorized persons, both at the border and in the interior, increased, so have credible fear claims. Additionally, the increase of nauthorized persons from Central American countries, many of whom leave their country of origin due, in part, to political and gang violence, has also contributed to an increase in political asylum and credible fear cases. Due to these factors, the number of pending cases on the docket of immigration courts nationwide has increased exponentially.......[Citing TRAC research].


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