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In asylum applications, location matters: Immigration judges along the Texas border are more likely to deny applications for political asylum than judges in other parts of the country, the Texas Tribune reports. A new analysis out of Syracuse University found that two judges in El Paso, Texas, had a combined rejection rate of 83.3% between 2006 and July 2011, compared to the national average of 53.2%. The study reported the "disturbing" finding that the identity of the judge was a better predictor of an applicant's success than the underlying facts of the case. One explanation, according to legal experts, is that asylum judges are swayed by foreign-policy interests, including the U.S.'s financial and political stake in Mexico's war against drug traffickers and cartels.
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