New data shows that the application process for political asylum experienced in the 1980s within the Central American community during the bloody civil wars of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua has largely increased within the U.S. Mexican community in the past two years.
According to statistics provided by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the numbers of political asylum applications under “credible-fear” claims have tripled from 2012 to 2013. The process now requires that USCIS give an asylum applicant a pre-interview with an immigration officer upon arrival into the United States due to the increasingly number of people abusively using asylum laws in order to stay in the United States.
In the past, the migration of Mexican citizens was largely due to Mexico’s lack of economic opportunities, but in the last five years the migration of Mexican citizens to the U.S. has been due to the fear of being followed, kidnapped, and in many cases murdered. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), the number of homicides in Mexico tripled from 2007 to 2011, corresponding with the increase in asylum applications in the United States.
Currently, proving an asylum’s credible fear standard is difficult to do and the percentage of approvals are low compared to the number of denials.
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