What's the difference between a refugee and an asylee?
Refugees and asylees are people seeking protection in the U.S. on the grounds that they fear persecution in their homeland. A refugee applies for protection while outside the United States. An asylee differs from a refugee because the person first comes to the United States and, once here, applies for protection. Refugees generally apply in refugee camps or at designated processing sites outside their home countries. In some instances, refugees may apply for protection within their home countries, such as in the former Soviet Union, Cuba, and Vietnam. If accepted as a refugee, the person is sent to the U.S. and receives assistance through the "refugee resettlement program."

How many refugees does the U.S. accept?
The United States accepts a limited number of refugees each year (this number is determined by the President in consultation with Congress). In fiscal year 2004, for example, up to 50,000 refugees allocated among seven regions of the world will be permitted to come to the U.S. The regions and the numbers of admissions are:

• Africa—25,000
• Eastern Europe—2,500
• Former Soviet Union—14,000
• East Asia—6,500
• Near East/South Asia—-2,000
• Latin America and the Caribbean—3,500

The number of refugees that the president and Congress decide to admit is a target number. In fact, fewer refugees may be admitted by the end of the year. For example, in both fiscal years 2003 and 2004 the target number of refugees to be resettled each year was 70,000. However, in fiscal year 2003 the total number of refugees admitted to the U.S. totaled 28,422; and, in fiscal year 2004, which ended on September 30, 2004, the total number of refugees admitted totaled 52,875.

How does someone gain refugee status?
To be able to come to the U.S. as a refugee, a person must come from a country designated by the Department of State. The person must also prove that she has a well-founded fear of persecution, or has been persecuted in the past. This means that the person must prove that she is truly afraid that she would be persecuted if she had to return to her country; and, that she has a good reason to be afraid. So, the person applying for refugee status must prove that she fears she would be persecuted because of her race, religion, membership in a particular social group, political opinion, or national origin. In addition, a refugee must fit into one of a set of "priority" categories in order to be resettled in the U.S. as a refugee. These categories give priority to persons according to the degree of risk to the refugee's life, their membership in certain groups of special concern to the U.S., and existence of family members in the U.S.

A person claiming refugee status must undergo a vigorous screening process before being resettled in the U.S. First, the person is screened by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to determine if she qualifies as a refugee under international law. If she qualifies, she next is screened by the U.S. embassy in the host country, which contracts with private organizations to collect personal information about refugees. The embassy will check the name of the refugee in its Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS), which contains the names of millions of persons who have been denied visas, or who may be ineligible to enter the U.S. If she passes that test, an officer from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) conducts a face-to-face interview and reviews the file. The refugee is then photographed and fingerprinted by the State Department. Refugees, generally, must receive clearance from the FBI. If no problems arise in all of this screening, the International Office of Migration (IOM) carries out health screening and travel arrangements. Once the refugee passes the health screening and travel arrangements are made, the refugee proceeds to the U.S. Upon entry to the U.S. an inspector from U.S. Customs and Border Protection conducts one more interview and compares the refugee’s identifying documents with host country U.S. embassy records.

This screening system is intended to ensure accuracy. However, often it paralyzes the refugee admission system and may mean that the U.S. does not resettle as many refugees as it committed to resettling in any given year. The limited numbers of “slots” given each year for refugee resettlement (70,000 in fiscal year 2004) do not carry over into the following year if they are not used. This leaves vulnerable refugees unprotected for even longer periods of time. Thus, without additional resources, the U.S. is falling short of its commitment to protect refugees.

After refugees have been in the U.S. for one year, they are eligible to apply for permanent resident status. There is no limit to the number of refugees who may become permanent residents each year.

What benefits do refugees receive?
The circumstances under which refugees leave their country are different from those of other immigrants. Often they are fleeing persecution without the luxury of bringing personal possessions or preparing themselves for life in a new culture. Recognizing this fact, the federal government provides transitional resettlement assistance to newly arrived refugees.

In the first 90 days, private voluntary agencies contract with the Department of State to provide for a refugee's food, housing, employment, medical care, counseling, and other services to help the refugee make the transition to economic self-sufficiency. Certain refugees are entitled to a special program of Refugee Cash and Medical Assistance, provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and administered by the state in which the refugee resides.

While most newly arriving immigrants are barred from receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Medicaid until they become citizens (and Food Stamps for their first five years), refugees are exempt from the ban on TANF for the first five years after they gain refugee status, and from the ban on SSI and Medicaid for seven years. They are eligible for Food Stamps as well.

How does someone become an asylee?
Like a refugee, an asylum applicant must also prove that he has a "well-founded fear of persecution" based on his race, religion, membership in a particular social group, political opinion, or national origin. Once granted asylum, the person is called an "asylee." Persons who apply for asylum may only do so from within the U.S.

Individuals inside the U.S. may apply for asylum in one of two ways. The application may be submitted "affirmatively" by mailing it to a USCIS Service Center. The USCIS will schedule an interview with a specially trained asylum officer in one of eight asylum offices in the U.S. A "defensive" application is submitted when an asylum seeker is in removal proceedings (the U.S. government wants to “deport” the person). This is why this type of application is called a “defensive” application, because it is a defense to being removed (“deported”) from the U.S. In defensive cases, an Immigration Judge decides whether or not to approve the application for asylum. In either case, the application usually has to be submitted within one year of having arrived to the U.S., or the person will be found automatically ineligible. Exceptions are allowed for extraordinary circumstances. There is no limit on the number of people who may apply for asylum in most cases. However, for those persons who apply based on a claim of persecution for coercive family planning reasons, only 1,000 per year may be granted. In fiscal year 2003, approximately 15,417 asylum applications were approved.

Like refugees, asylum seekers must, in addition to proving a well-founded fear of persecution, be screened to make sure that they are not legally disqualified from being allowed to remain in the U.S. Even if a person fears persecution, she may not be eligible for asylum if she has a criminal history or persecuted other persons herself. All applicants for asylum must submit fingerprints, and they are subject to a check of all appropriate records and information databases, including FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and State Department databases.

Four of the five reasons that a person may be eligible for asylum may be fairly easy to define. However, there is a lot of debate about who should qualify for asylum based on “membership in a particular social group” and what this term means. In recent years, the concept of what constitutes a social group that may be targeted for persecution has evolved. For example, some women seeking asylum have based their asylum claims on domestic violence. In these types of cases, it generally happens that the civil authorities of the country have been unwilling to intervene in life-threatening situations, leaving a woman totally at the mercy of her abuser unless she flees for her life. Sexual orientation has also served as the basis for successful asylum claims in some cases. In either case, it is not only direct persecution by the government that serves as the basis for an asylum claim, but also the unwillingness of the government to protect someone in a particular social group who is in serious danger.

Like refugees, asylees may apply for permanent resident status after one year. Unlike refugees, a maximum of 10,000 asylees each year are allowed to become permanent residents. Since reforms to the asylum system were instituted in 1995, more than 10,000 persons each year have been granted asylum. This fact, coupled with the annual adjustment of status limit, has created a backlog of applications for permanent residence. There are now tens of thousands of applications in the backlog (57,000 in March of 2001). This means that someone granted asylum today will have to wait not one year, but many years before becoming a permanent resident (and then another four years before gaining eligibility to apply for citizenship).

Individuals seeking to apply for asylum upon arriving at a U.S. airport or other port of entry are subject to an expedited removal system. If an asylum seeker arrives with false or insufficient immigration documents, or if an asylum seeker declares his intention to apply for asylum, he may be removed to the country from which he last traveled. Before the person is removed, the inspecting officer asks a series of questions to determine if the person has any fear of being returned to his home country. If the person expresses a fear of return, he is detained awaiting an interview by an asylum officer. If the person establishes a credible fear of return to his home country in the interview, he is permitted to remain in the U.S., usually in detention, while his asylum application is presented to the immigration judge and a decision is made whether to grant or deny removal. Of the persons identified for expedited removal, only about 1% get beyond the on-the-spot interview and see an asylum officer. Of those, about 88% convince asylum officers that they have a credible fear of persecution and are given the chance to make their case to an Immigration Judge. This expedited removal system is responsible for the removal of approximately one half of all persons removed from the U.S. In November 2002, the USCIS announced that it was expanding expedited removal to cover all persons arriving or having arrived by sea, if an immigration officer had not admitted them. Even persons living and working in this country for up to two years (and perhaps longer) will be subject to this treatment if they arrived by sea without being inspected by an immigration officer.

Source: National Immigration Forum, 2004