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The new policy of accelerating asylum hearings and granting fewer approvals may be taking that toll on some of those rejected. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which tracks federal data, including the results of immigration cases, said the Justice Department’s immigration judges are finding that fewer asylum seekers have a “credible fear.” The number of asylum cases approved by the judges has fallen from more than 35 percent at the start of the year to under 15 percent in June.
The attorney general is wrong on at least two points. First, most asylum seekers are not crossing the border illegally, they are in flight and seeking refuge. Second, the increase in asylum applications is not evidence of more immigrants exploiting a weakness in the law. It is evidence that conditions in several Central American countries have become so dangerous the only way to survive is to leave.
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