Expert: Gathering Needed Evidence Can Be Difficult for Asylum Seekers

David Olson, Newsday, Dec. 26, 2024

"Julio Zambrano was nervous as he walked into a downtown Manhattan courtroom Nov. 13 and stood before the immigration judge. He removed the backpack that carried three pieces of paper ordering the Ecuadorian migrant and his two young sons to appear in court to show why they should not be deported. Amid Zambrano’s anxiety was hope that by following the rules — showing up in court, meeting repeatedly with immigration authorities and filing a written asylum claim — he would be allowed to stay in the country where he had arrived without legal permission just before Christmas last year. "I’m trying to do the right thing to give them no reason to send me back," he told Newsday in Spanish. ...Many asylum applicants have no written evidence of acts that could qualify them for asylum, said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor of immigration law practice at Cornell Law School in Ithaca and co-author of the 22-volume "Immigration Law and Procedure." "It's very hard to get the documents from your home country proving that either you have been persecuted, or you have a well-founded fear of persecution," he said. "How many people can get a note from their torturer saying, 'This is why I tortured you?’”… ...Despite Trump’s promise to deport millions, Zambrano and his sons are "safer than other people" and cannot be deported until after a judge hears their cases, Yale-Loehr said. One exception that could potentially lead to deportation before a final asylum hearing is conviction of certain crimes in the United States or abroad, he said. Yale-Loehr said many factors determine whether Zambrano and other migrants win their asylum cases. The law requires they show they have suffered persecution in their homeland, or have a well-founded fear of persecution if they are sent back, due to their race, religion, nationality, political opinions or "membership in a particular social group." The latter is a category that can be interpreted differently by each judge, and by different presidential administrations…."