In December 2022 alone, there were 1,566,000 pending asylum cases in the United States. In the framework of World Refugee Day, which is commemorated every June 20, Alianza Americas developed a series of infographics that reflect the most important challenges facing the asylum or refugee system. Specifically, we illustrate three areas of concern: 1) the high volume of pending cases in the most powerful country in the world, both for unauthorized and authorized entrants; 2) the increase in the number of cases before immigration judges, without an increase in state response or changes in immigration procedures, generating a significant delay in the resolution of pending cases; 3) the contrast between the rates of granting and denial of asylum for Latin American nationalities. These graphs invite us to reflect on the urgent administrative and legislative reforms that the asylum system needs in order to offer humanitarian protection, and to respond in an agile and fair manner to the reasons that force people to leave their countries.
World Refugee Day is an opportunity to acknowledge the courage and persistence of those who leave their homes and their communities in search of the safety that they do not have in their countries of origin. It is also a moment to call on the U.S. government to lead by example. Restricting access to asylum and denying asylum is not the way forward.