POLITICAL ASYLUM
|
Refuge in a safe haven is the dream of many victims fleeing persecution within their homeland. Every year, thousands of victims come to the United States in search of security for their lives. When they finally reach the United States, these victims can request to stay in the United States by filing an application for asylum.
The Definition of Asylum
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) authorizes the Attorney General the discretionary power to grant asylum to an alien who meets the refugee definition. Section 101 (a) 42 (A) of the INA provides that a refugee is a person who is unwilling or unable to return to his or her home country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of:
A person who meets this criteria is eligible to seek asylum.
According to the INA, the individual must first show persecution. The Court INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca, 480 U.S. 421 (1987), established the standard for a well-founded fear of persecution. A well founded fear of persecution must be objectionably reasonable and subjectively genuine. The threat of persecution or persecution itself may come from non-governmental forces that the government is unwilling or unable to control. However, general widespread violence and human rights violations will not constitute persecution or give rise to a well-founded fear of persecution.
Second, the individual must prove that the persecution is on account of one of the five grounds. The Board of Immigration Appeals has held that violence arising from civil strife was not persecution as contemplated within asylum law and that an asylum applicant must present evidence directly linking the applicant’s persecution to one of the protected grounds.
Eligibility to Apply for Asylum
To be eligible to file for asylum, a person must file for asylum within one year of his or her arrival into the United States. The application can be made at a port of entry such as the airport. There are exceptions to the one-year rule. First, there may be changed circumstances affect the individual’s application for asylum. If conditions in the individual’s home country have changed, or if his or her personal circumstances have changed and those changes affect eligibility for asylum, the individual may apply after one year of arriving to the US. Second, there may be extraordinary circumstances that may relate to the failure to meet the one-year deadline. The failure to meet the one-year deadline may be excused if the person filed within a reasonable time period following those extraordinary circumstances. However, an individual is ineligible to apply if he or she participated in the persecution of others. Other grounds for ineligibility include but are not limited to an individual’s criminal history, danger to US security, terrorism, safe third country, and resettling in another country.
Application Procedure
The application for asylum is made on Form I-589 (Application for Asylum and Withholding of Removal). There is no fee for the application. After filing the application, USCIS will schedule the individual for an interview at one of the regional service centers. Following the interview, the asylum officer will then make a decision on the application. The officer can approve the application or the officer can refer the application the Immigration Judge for review. If a person has been placed into removal (deportation) proceedings, he or she may make an application for before the Immigration Judge so long as he or she is eligible.
After residing in the United States for one year following a grant of application for asylum, the individual is eligible to file for adjustment of status to that of lawful permanent residence (green card). There is no limit to the number of asylum applications granted.
|
|
|
|
LIVE CHAT
Political Asylum