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The Department of Homeland Security’s guidance includes a new exemption for gay and transgender individuals, although there’s concern among advocates about how that will be implemented in practice.
A DHS spokesperson said exceptions for LGBT persons and other particularly vulnerable individuals will be considered case-by-case. The agency also noted that Biden issued an executive order in February committing to improving the asylum process and combatting the sexual and gender-based violence and other “root causes” of migration.
DHS doesn’t track LGBT asylum claims, but a study earlier this year from the Williams Institute estimated LGBT individuals filed at least 11,400 applications from 2012 to 2017, with more than half of those coming from Central America.
Overall, approval rates for all asylum applications haven risen since Biden took office in January, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University has found.
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