Asylum

The enforcement of immigration laws is a complex and hotly-debated topic. Learn more about the costs of immigration enforcement and the ways in which the U.S. can enforce our immigration laws humanely and in a manner that ensures due process.

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FACT SHEET
  • Fact Sheet
A Primer on Expedited Removal

Expedited removal is a process by which low-level immigration officers can quickly deport certain noncitizens who are undocumented or have committed fraud or misrepresentation. 

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FACT SHEET
  • Fact Sheet
Asylum in the United States

Asylum seekers must navigate a difficult and complex process that can involve multiple government agencies. This fact sheet provides an overview of the asylum system in the United States, including how asylum is defined, eligibility requirements, and the application process.

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All Asylum Content

  • Advocacy

How the El Paso Immigration Court Fails to Uphold Due Process

April 3, 2019

This complaint highlights systemic due process violations that are undermining justice for detained immigrants called before judges at the El Paso Service Processing Center (SPC) Immigration Court...

  • Advocacy

Complaint Urges Immediate Release of Infants from Immigration Detention

February 28, 2019
Numerous babies under the age of one—and some as young as six months old—are being detained in immigration detention at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.
  • Advocacy

Comments Opposing Proposed Regulation Barring Asylum to Those Entering Between US Ports of Entry

January 7, 2019

The American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) submitted a joint comment opposing the “Interim Final Rule: Aliens Subject to a Bar on Entry Under...

  • Amicus Briefs

Matter of Negusie

Publication Date: 
December 3, 2018
In Matter of Negusie, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions referred to himself the question of whether coercion and duress are relevant to the application of the immigration statute’s persecutor bar for individuals seeking asylum or withholding of removal
  • Advocacy

Statement for the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Hearing on "The Implications of Reinterpretation of the Flores Settlement for Border Security and Illegal Immigration Incentives"

September 18, 2018

The American Immigration Council and American Immigration Lawyers Association submitted a written statement to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and...

  • Advocacy

The Illegal and Systematic Practice of Coercing Separated Families Must Be Investigated

August 23, 2018

The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy led to not only to the forcible separation of thousands of children from their parents, but the extreme duress and coercion of...

  • Legal Resources and Litigation

Statement for Senate Committee on the Judiciary Hearing “Oversight of Immigration Enforcement and Family Reunification Efforts.”

July 31, 2018
The American Immigration Council submitted a written statement to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary for a July 31, 2018 hearing on “Oversight of Immigration Enforcement and Family Reunification Efforts.”
  • FOIA Litigation

U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Port of Entry Practices FOIA Lawsuit

In the year and a half since the FOIA request was filed, CBP largely failed to provide any records in response to the request. On June 11, 2018, the Council, represented by O’Melveny & Myers LLP, filed a lawsuit to compel DHS and CBP to comply with FOIA and to release additional records related to the 2016 request.
  • Litigation

Holding CBP Accountable for Turning Away Asylum Seeker and Falsifying Paper Trail

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers all too frequently deny individuals fleeing persecution and torture their right to seek protection in the United States, issue summary removal orders against them, and then falsify documents to support their illegal actions.
  • Legal Resources and Litigation

Statement for the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security on "Stopping the Daily Border Caravan: Time to Build a Policy Wall"

May 22, 2018
The statement shares our analysis and research regarding the nation's asylum system and the United States' obligations, as well as our deep concern around the administration's family separation policies and increased prosecution of migrants for entry-related offenses that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have implemented.
  • Blog

Biden’s New Asylum Process: What You Need to Know

March 25, 2022

The Biden administration finalized its long-anticipated plan for overhauling the asylum system on March 24. The regulation, which is set to go into effect on an interim basis in 60 days, was first...

  • Blog

This USCIS Policy Change Will Reunite Vulnerable LGBTQ Refugee and Asylum Couples

March 2, 2022

In February, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reversed Trump administration guidance that limited recognition of marriages performed abroad only to those considered “valid” in the...

  • Blog

Federal Court Restores Access to Work Permits for Many Asylum Seekers

February 9, 2022

A federal court issued a decision on February 7 invalidating two Trump-era regulations that restricted access to work permits for asylum seekers. In her decision, Judge Beryl Howell of the...

  • Blog

Leaked Photos Reveal Inhumane Conditions in Border Processing Centers

January 14, 2022

New leaked photos of Border Patrol stations in Yuma, Arizona show Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) inhumane treatment of people apprehended at the border— revealing that years of overcrowded...

  • Blog

Biden’s Border Ambitions Fall Short in a Year of Setbacks and Continued Focus on Deterrence

December 14, 2021

President Biden took office committing to unwind Trump’s border policies and go in a new direction—to reunite families, restore access to asylum, and reverse “policies enacted over the last 4...

  • Blog

Failure to Reauthorize Employment Harms Asylum Seekers and the U.S. Economy

November 12, 2021

U.S. workers are losing their jobs due to bureaucratic delays at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), despite an economy desperate for workers. Asylum seekers wanting to renew their...

  • Blog

ICE Begins Mass Mailing Court Notices to Asylum Seekers Released at the Border

November 9, 2021

Since President Biden took office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers have released over 250,000 people seeking asylum directly at the border. In nearly half of these cases, people...

  • Blog

Biden Administration Doubles Down On Title 42 As Del Rio Expulsions Draw to A Close

October 8, 2021

In September, nearly 15,000 Haitians arrived near Del Rio, Texas seeking asylum in the United States. But rather than allowing them to seek protection, as is their right under United States law,...

  • Blog

Biden Administration Reopens Protection Program for At-Risk Central American Children

September 22, 2021

The Departments of State and Homeland Security announced recently that they will be accepting new applications for the Central American Minors (CAM) Program, created to process immigrant children...

  • Blog

Del Rio Migrant Camp Shows How Biden Administration Is Not Living Up to Its Promises

September 21, 2021

Roughly 14,000 Haitians arrived at the border across from Del Rio, Texas in mid-September and walked across the Rio Grande to seek asylum. Many first left Haiti in 2010 following a devastating...

  • Press Release

Returning to Our Humanitarian Obligations, AG Garland Restores Protections for Many Asylum Seekers

June 16, 2021
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced today that he is restoring a vital lifeline to victims of severe domestic violence, gang violence, and violence on account of family relationships.
  • Press Release

Facts About the Current Situation at the Border

March 23, 2021
The nation has turned its attention to the current situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, including the rise in immigrant children in U.S. government custody. Much of the conversation has focused on a supposed surge in arrivals under the Biden administration, but the current increase began well before President Biden took office.
  • Press Release

Survey of Hundreds of Organizations Shows Extent of Community-Based Support for People Navigating the U.S. Immigration System

March 1, 2021
A new publication provides a snapshot of the extent of available services that help migrants navigate the complexities of the U.S. immigration system.
  • Press Release

US Government Records Reveal Expanded Methods to Rush Deportations at Border

January 27, 2021
Newly released government records reveal U.S. immigration agencies' efforts in 2019 to rapidly deport thousands of people from the United States through the little-known Electronic Nationality Verification program.
  • Press Release

Federal Court Blocks Dramatic Immigration Courts Fee Increases

January 19, 2021
A federal court blocked nearly all of a Trump administration rule that would have drastically increased fees in immigration proceedings in which the government seeks to deport immigrants, many of whom are long-term residents of this country.
  • Press Release

Court Blocks Trump Administration Attempt to Thwart Court Order Protecting Asylum Seekers

January 18, 2021
A federal court issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration’s latest attempt to prevent asylum seekers from accessing the U.S. asylum process.
  • Press Release

Immigrant Rights Advocates Ask Court to Block Trump Administration Attempt to Thwart Court Order

January 7, 2021
Immigrant rights advocates moved for a temporary restraining order to block the Trump administration’s latest attempt to circumvent an earlier court order prohibiting the government from applying an asylum ban to people whom U.S. Customs and Border Protection had previously turned away from ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border.
  • Press Release

New Rule Spells Death for the Asylum System—AILA and the Council Urge the Biden Administration to Prioritize its Undoing

December 10, 2020
The American Immigration Lawyers Association and the American Immigration Council urge the Biden administration to prioritize undoing of new rule that spells death for the asylum system
  • Press Release

Lawsuit Demands Records on the Treatment of Migrant Children at the Border During COVID-19 Pandemic

October 30, 2020
Children and immigration advocacy groups filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois against CBP requesting information about the agency’s implementation of the CDC rule suspending people from entering the United States due to the COVID 19 pandemic and its specific impact on unaccompanied migrant children fleeing harm and seeking protection in the United States.
  • Press Release

Immigrant Rights Advocates Ask Court to Permanently Block Trump Policy Turning Back Asylum Seekers

September 8, 2020
Asylum seekers who have been turned back by U.S. Customs and Border Protection from ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border asked a federal court to permanently stop the Trump administration’s Turnback Policy and declare it unlawful.
  • Press Release

U.S. Supreme Court Allows Biden Administration to End MPP

June 30, 2022
The U.S. Supreme Court allows the Biden administration’s efforts to terminate the Migrant Protection Protocols—an illegal Trump-era policy that sent thousands of people seeking humanitarian protection to dangerous areas of Mexico to await their asylum hearings.
  • Fact Sheet

A Guide to Title 42 Expulsions at the Border

Last modified: 
May 25, 2022
Publication Date: 
October 15, 2021
The United States has long guaranteed the right to seek asylum to individuals who arrive at our southern border and ask for protection. But since March 20, 2020, that fundamental right has been...
  • Blog

What We Know About the Senate Negotiations That Could Wreck Asylum in the US 

December 1, 2023

Members of the U.S. Senate are currently negotiating a deal to continue funding the federal government next year, as well as providing military aid to Ukraine But the cost could be the federal...

  • Blog

Labor Shortage Can Be Fixed by Letting Asylum Seekers Get Work Permits Sooner, Business Leaders Say

November 20, 2023

When asylum seekers come to the United States, they want to work—but an outdated immigration statute is making that more difficult than it needs to be. After filing an asylum application, asylum...

  • Blog

CBP’s Continued ‘Turnbacks’ Are Sending Asylum Seekers Back to Lethal Danger

August 10, 2023

On April 8, a family came to the San Ysidro port of entry in Tijuana and asked to be let into the United States to seek asylum. The husband’s arm was bleeding. He’d been shot. The cartel that had...

  • Blog

The True Impact of Biden’s Asylum Transit Ban

July 28, 2023

On Tuesday, a federal judge ruled that the Biden administration’s asylum transit ban was illegal and should be vacated. The ruling isn’t in effect yet – it was delayed for 14 days and may be...

  • Blog

Stays in CBP Custody Are Getting Longer Due to ‘Phone Booth Asylum’ Policy

July 21, 2023

“I never thought I’d say there’s anything worse than ICE custody, but this is it.” That’s an immigration attorney in San Diego talking to CNN about the shelter facilities run by U.S. Customs and...

  • Research and Analysis

Alternatives to Immigration Detention: An Overview

Publication Date: 
July 11, 2023
This fact sheet provides an overview of the wide range of programs that provide alternatives to detention (ATDs) and run the gamut from no governmental intervention to extensive surveillance and...
  • Blog

Biden’s Asylum Transit Ban – Where Are We Now?

June 29, 2023

The end of the COVID-19 public health emergency back in May meant an end to Title 42. That policy, grounded in an obscure public health law, was put in place by the Trump administration in March...

  • Blog

Congress Introduces Sweeping Immigration Reform Bill ‘DIGNIDAD Act’ to Address Systematic Challenges

May 25, 2023

On May 23, members of Congress introduced what has sadly become an increasingly rare bit of legislation; a comprehensive immigration reform bill aimed at addressing large-scale systematic problems...

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