Putting TRAC to Work
  Policy and Public Interest Groups
Human Rights First
April 30, 2019

Parsing Truth from Fiction in President Trump’s Latest Attempt to Restrict Asylum
By Kennji Kizuka


Figures from the DOJ show that in the first quarter of FY 2019, the immigration court granted 1,824 asylum applications for individuals who passed a credible fear interview and denied 3,667, which resulted in a 33 percent grant rate. Between FY 2008 and 2018, the overall grant rate was 41 percent. As Human Rights First has previously explained, asylum grant rates for Central American asylum seekers were on the rise until President Trump took office. Between FY 2010 and 2016, the percentage of asylum seekers from the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras granted protection rose by 96 percent, according to data from the Syracuse University Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). Decisions by the Attorney General to limit eligibility for asylum, including Matter of A-B-, have caused asylum grant rates to decline, particularly for Central American refugees.


Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
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