The Trump Administration Has Undercut the U.S. Asylum Program. These 3 Charts Show How

The Trump administration, for over a year, has chipped away at immigrants’ ability to claim asylum, undercutting one of the few remaining ways for people fleeing persecution to stay in the U.S.

In the latest change this week, asylum officers could send hundreds of thousands more asylum applications to immigration courts. As a result, more asylum seekers are expected to be denied legal permission to stay in the country.

The rule affects applications filed at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the branch of the Homeland Security Department that oversees legal migration. It comes as the administration has narrowed the scope of how someone can claim asylum or be approved for it, and curbed freedoms and benefits for those waiting for an answer. Asylum approvals are now at their lowest in at least two decades.

The changes come even as hundreds of thousands of TPS or temporary protected status holders are poised to lose the legal ability to work and live in the U.S. and are seeking additional avenues to stay, including asylum. And various other humanitarian programs like refugee resettlement and visas have been limited or paused.

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The new USCIS rule would let asylum officers refer an asylum application to the immigration court system within the Justice Department, where attorneys say it is now likely to get rejected. The rule takes effect immediately, even as the agency collects public comments. It’s meant to reduce the one-million case backlog at USCIS by about 30%.

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