Putting TRAC to Work
  Policy and Public Interest Groups
SBCC
April 23, 2021

Asylum Seekers at the Border


Using data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) project at Syracuse University, we mapped out the locations where asylum seekers have been waiting in Mexico. The largest caseload was the MPP court in El Paso, Texas where nearly 23,000 people were scheduled. Some 16,500 asylum seekers enrolled in MPP were scheduled for court in Brownsville, TX — across from Matamoros, previously home to the largest refugee camp on the border. The processing of individuals in MPP into the U.S. will likely make it easier to access legal support and win their cases. For asylum seekers forced into the MPP program, it has been very difficult to secure a lawyer from Mexico and only 7% had representation. Instead, in almost all cases (93%), the claimant is not represented. TRAC previously found that asylum seekers with legal counsel are five times more likely to win their cases. This helps explain why the probability that an asylum seeker that was forced to remain in Mexico is so low with a 1-in-100 chance of winning.


Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
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