A RIF member shares about his experience applying for asylum with other participants at a monthly RIF community meeting.
Shortly after taking office, President Biden asked Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to set up a task force to reform the U.S. asylum system. One hundred days into President Biden’s first term, most attention is on asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. This focus overlooks the nuances of the asylum system—notably, the differences between affirmative and defensive asylum.
Most asylum seekers at the border are defensive asylum seekers. However, according to the most recent statistics from U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS), the federal agency that handles affirmative asylum, there are approximately 330,000 affirmative asylum seekers throughout the United States with pending cases. Ten percent of them are right here in the New York City area. They are largely invisible, having entered the U.S. with visas and only later applied for asylum.
Immigration attorney Amir Rasoulpour leads a presentation about applying for asylum.
Over the years, despite an increase in attention to asylum overall, affirmative asylum seekers have continued to face a gap in orientation services. This gap leaves many without the information and support to be successful in meritorious asylum claims. It has contributed to overwhelming legal providers and USCIS, and exacerbated the current backlog. Read our blog on the backlog here. When asylum seekers first arrive in New York, they encounter a total vacuum of support, especially to navigate a legal system that is extremely complex. For someone fleeing persecution, often negotiating past and ongoing trauma, fighting to secure their means of survival in a foreign city, applying for asylum can be profoundly overwhelming.
While policymakers, including some in the Biden Administration, have floated the idea of free legal representation for asylum seekers, at present, asylum seekers have three options: pay for a private lawyer; apply for a pro bono attorney; or apply for asylum by themselves. For those who cannot afford a private lawyer, finding a pro bono attorney is a competitive application process in its own right.
There are a couple dozen pro bono legal providers in New York City, but demand for them far exceeds their capacity. Only about 10 percent of our members are able to secure pro bono representation. Meanwhile, the application process takes months and involves several rounds of interviews, which can be retraumatizing. In one recent case, it took nearly six months for a pro bono provider to accept a RIF member’s case. That was even after RIF helped the member compile a strong asylum application with a complete personal statement and extensive supporting evidence.
A RIF member and asylum seeker presents about his experience at a monthly community meeting.
Some providers have relationships with private law firms to provide pro bono support. While this helps relieve the unsustainable pressure on over-taxed non-profit providers, the model also risks pairing asylum seekers with lawyers who do not specialize in asylum and are unprepared to take on their cases. For example, private law firms often reach out to RIF for information about how to navigate the asylum offices, where affirmative cases are first adjudicated.
For other clients, pursuing pro bono representation isn’t an option from the start. Some are too close to their one-year deadline to apply. Others, desperate to reunite with family members, especially young children, are reluctant to go through the multi-month application process for pro bono representation. These clients either pay a private lawyer or apply by themselves. Each course of action presents its own risks, especially if an asylum seeker hasn’t received an orientation to the asylum process.
There are thousands of private immigration lawyers in New York City. For some asylum seekers, however, their cost is simply prohibitive: $5,000-7,000 just to file the asylum application. This total does not include additional fees to file a work permit application or to represent a client if they are referred to immigration court, which happens in about 70 percent of cases in the New York City area. Asylum seekers are required to have legal representation in immigration court. These fees are often out of reach for asylum seekers who left their homes unexpectedly, secured funding for travel to the United States, and are establishing themselves financially in a new city, often with zero support.
Immigration attorney Angela Torregoza and RIF members celebrate asylum seeker Mamadou’s asylum victory!
For those who can afford a private lawyer, the vacuum in orientation services allows abusers of all types, often masking as “helpers,” to prey on asylum seekers’ lack of knowledge and vulnerability. Many of these helpers locate themselves in immigrant neighborhoods where they advertise their services in the most-spoken languages. The most heart-rending cases we encounter are those where asylum seekers have already paid several thousands of dollars to a lawyer or helper who has done little to advance their case, or worse, has jeopardized their chances of success. Unfortunately, about 50 percent of our legal consultations center on incorrect prior or current legal advice, showcasing the importance of orientation services to avoid these often well-disguised traps.
In short: orientation matters.
Whether we help an asylum seeker navigate applying for a pro bono attorney or respond to abuse by a private lawyer, orientation is a key determinant of success, even among evidently meritorious cases. Unfortunately, orientation remains an overlooked service -- to the detriment of both asylum seekers and the ecosystem of non-profit organizations and federal agencies involved in affirmative asylum. Nearly all of them are desperately overstretched.
By filling the gap in orientation services for affirmative asylum seekers in New York City, RIF:
Increases the chances that asylum seekers with meritorious cases are able to articulate their claim correctly and provide sufficient supporting evidence to be successful in their case. This outcome also avoids meritorious claims being unnecessarily referred to immigration court, where the Department of Justice is facing a backlog that dwarfs the one at USCIS.
Decreases the resource-sucking burden on USCIS of processing poorly filed asylum claims. These also exacerbate the backlog and are often avoidable if an asylum seekers receives accurate guidance at the outset of their application process.
Helps asylum seekers avoid the poverty traps that await them in New York City, whether it is overpaying a poor immigration attorney, experiencing unnecessary delays in receiving work authorization, or facing barriers to accessing basic services and education and career opportunities that are the key to economic mobility.
Prevents the re-traumatization of asylum seekers, which is too often a characteristic part of the asylum-seeking experience, especially when applicants lack the knowledge and support to navigate the complicated asylum system.