THE POLITICS OF ASYLUM
Ebert-Miner, Allan
The Politics of Asylum Malf a million Salvadorans have fled to the United States since 1979. Most arrive without papers; some try to avoid detection, and some petition our Government for political...
...For an El Salvadoran national to receive a favorable asylum advisory opinion, he or she must have a classic textbook case," states an internal INS memorandum of June 1982...
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...Seven Polish crewmen jumped ship and applied for asylum in Alaska...
...They face an approval rate of about 2 per cent, as opposed to a 29 per cent rate for Polish applicants, 44 per cent for Romanians, and 78 per cent for Soviet applicants...
...To be granted asylum, an immigrant must demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion...
...But the State Department regards Salvadorans entering the United States as "economic migrants," not political refugees...
...Response to situations where the United States has stood uniquely as a symbol of freedom...
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...Bassin, who processes 800 Salvadoran applications a month, does not speak Spanish and has not been to El Salvador since 1942...
...The Reagan Administration has reduced by 50 per cent the number of admissions for Latin American refugees...
...The INS almost invariably follows the State Department's recommendations...
...Opportunities for resettlement in other countries and practical limits on U.S...
...On the other hand, the State Department Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs sometimes recommends favorable action where the applicant cannot meet the individual well-founded-fear-of-persecution test...
...The crewman had never been a member of Solidarity, never participated in any political activity, etc...
...Before 1980, the law defined a refugee as "a person fleeing persecution in a communist or communist-dominated country or in the general area of the Middle East...
...In one instance, the crewman said the reason he feared returning to Poland was that he had once attended a Solidarity rally (he was one of the more than 100,000 participants at the rally...
...But either course is a risky one...
...Even before seeing the asylum applications, a State Department official said 'We're going to approve them.' All the applications, in the view of INS senior officials, were extremely weak...
...If it is the case that liberalism as the dominant ideology is on the wane," said Feen, "notions of communal guilt and good samaritanism will no longer have the same strength to sway middle-class America...
...In fiscal 1984, only 328 applications for asylum were granted, while 13,045 were denied...
...Currently, the Government faces a backlog of 170,000 asylum claims, but only three full-time staff persons work on them at the State Department...
...He conceded that he has no information about what happens to those deported to El Salvador, and he has not sought such information...
...This happened in December 1981," the memo continues, "a week after martial law was declared in Poland...
...In 1981, it allocated 4,000 places...
...Such political bias is hardly new...
...He is not aware of civilian death threats, nor does he know of torture, abductions, and disappearances in El Salvador...
...But in practice, the Reagan Administration has adhered to the old standard, flouting the Refugee Act of 1980...
...This being the case, the volume of immigration into this country may be even further restricted...
...The role of politics in admitting foreigners was acknowledged in May 1983 by Richard Feen, the Special Consultant to the Office of the U.S...
...Advancement of broad foreign policy objectives...
...Allan Ebert-Miner (Allan Ebert-Miner is a free-lance writer in Washington, D.C...
...His claim was approved within forty-eight hours...
...some try to avoid detection, and some petition our Government for political asylum...
...In September 1981, then Attorney General William French Smith stated the Administration's criteria for judging asylum requests: 11" 1. Priority to refugees with close ties to the United States through relative or past employment by our Government...
...The emphasis on political considerations was dropped in favor of "special humanitarian concern...
...Coordinator for Refugee Affairs: "To deny entry to an ex-South Vietnamese official or an anti-communist peasant from Laos would be a form of heresy, if not treason, to the cause of democracy," Feen said...
...Before ruling on the requests, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) sends them to the State Department's Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, which gives its "advisory opinions" on the applications...
...Compared with refugees from other countries, particularly those from Eastern Europe, few Salvadorans are granted asylum...
...But Congress changed the law to encompass anyone fleeing persecution, regardless of ideology or geographic origin...
...There are "no rules, no yardstick" for evaluating the requests, according to a deposition by Jules Bassin, officer of asylum affairs at the State Department...
...in 1983, the figure fell to 2,000, as the whole entry program was scaled down...
...This is the official who helps decide the fate of thousands of Salvadoran refugees...
...resources...
...The Asylum Project of the American Civil Liberties Union has documented the deaths of fifty applicants who were deported to El Salvador...
Vol. 49 • August 1985 • No. 8
