Vallerie Lamour, from right, Jouseline Metayer and her son Jayden Metayer, 7 months, sit on cots Saturday, June 5, 2021, at a shelter for migrants in Houston. The three are migrants from Haiti.
Nicola Peña, 2, of Dominican Republic, holds her dad’s hand Sept. 21 at a shelter in Houston.
Central American asylum seekers are taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents on June 12, 2018 near McAllen, Texas.
Asylum seekers pleading their immigration cases in Houston are among the least likely to win their cases to lawfully remain in the United States, according to a new report looking at 62 immigration courts across the country.
Despite Houston’s reputation for being a “welcoming city,” immigration judges there denied between 89 and 100 percent of cases from fiscal years 2016 to 2021, according to a Syracuse University analysis of over 223,469 asylum decisions nationwide.
“Once you’re in Houston, you’re kind of done,” said Syracuse University researcher Austin Kocher. “Basically all of the judges deny 90 percent or more of their cases.”
Houston immigration attorney Ruby Powers said it can be very draining to take on an asylum case, which take many hours and intimate discussions with clients, all while knowing there’s a good chance it will be denied. Some attorneys even decide not to take asylum cases.
“I have a legal assistant who came to me from another firm and they’re like ‘I didn’t know you could win asylum’ because they’ve never seen it before,” she said.
The Syracuse University report also analyzed denial rates in smaller courts in the Houston area, such as the Houston – Gessner court and the Conroe court, which saw judges deny up to 96 percent and 98 percent of asylum cases, respectively.
In comparison to Houston’s consistently high denial rates, New York judges denied between 5 and 95 percent of cases, according to the data analysis of federal court records, meaning asylum seekers in New York have a much higher chance of winning their case.
Houston immigration attorney Leslie Giron Kirby takes this into consideration when she meets asylum seekers who may not be planning to stay in Houston.
“Their final destination may be L.A. or New York or some other venues that may have a higher rate of approval,” she said. “If I see that the client may have an option or another possibility to go and apply somewhere else, I counsel them to do that, because of the denial rates here in Houston.”
Several factors contribute to the inconsistencies in asylum denial rates among courts, such as the asylum seeker’s country of origin. Country conditions play an important role in an asylum case, as clients have to prove they have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country.
Some groups that have had higher rates of success pursue cases elsewhere. Chinese immigrants, who won 81 percent of their asylum cases in 2021, are far more likely to live and pursue a case in New York rather than in Houston. Meanwhile, Hondurans win just 22 percent of cases and more frequently live in Houston, according to Syracuse University data.
In fact, Central Americans from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are the largest asylum-seeking groups in Houston immigration courts — and they’re also facing some of the harshest denial rates.
But even asylum seekers coming from the same country can still face very different odds of winning their cases depending on their court venue.
Looking exclusively at Honduran asylum decisions from the past 20 years, New York courts denied 62 percent of cases compared to 93 percent denial rates in Houston.
Ideological perspectives in immigration courts and legal precedence established in the different federal courts of appeals also play a role, according to Powers.
“The Ninth Circuit in California is a lot more favorable toward asylum law,” said Powers, who has represented asylum seekers from at least 20 different countries. The federal courts of appeals have the authority to rule on asylum decisions that have already been challenged in the Board of Immigration Appeals.
Judges with low denial rates are also more likely to be in courts located in traditionally Democratic states, while in many cases asylum is less likely to be granted in courts in states that typically vote for Republican presidential candidates.
Asylum cases are often decided years after an immigrant has entered the country. Cases that were decided in 2021 were pending for an average of 2.5 years, according to Syracuse University data.
Some 1.5 million cases are backlogged in immigration courts across the country, including some 89,000 in Houston-area courts.
Narrowing Access to Asylum: Biden administration receives another blow after its attempts to end Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy
Along with low grant rates, Trump-era policies that have continued under President Joe Biden have also presented significant roadblocks to seeking asylum.
One of them, called “Title 42,” is a public health law used at the border to send people back to Mexico and block their opportunity to seek asylum.
Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy — also known as MPP (Migrant Protection Protocols) — is also restarting after the Biden administration effort to end it was stymied by a legal challenge in Texas and Missouri.
“It creates the perfect storm to take away a legal right that is in the books. It’s part of asylum law,” said Giron Kirby. “It’s so heartbreaking.”
elizabeth.trovall@chron.com
Elizabeth Trovall is an immigration reporter for the Houston Chronicle.
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