America's failing asylum system

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Sept. 4, 2024

Yerandy Valdes Ruiz was turned away once and sent back to Cuba, where he was jailed. He now lives in Missouri, awaits a second immigration hearing. Photographer: Sebastian Hidalgo/Bloomberg

Read the story America's system for deciding asylum cases is failing—and not only because it's overwhelmed.  Inefficiency in immigration courts has helped feed a surge in new arrivals, given that applications for asylum—even flimsy ones—can take years to resolve. At the same time, vast inconsistencies in rulings show the outcomes often have more to do with luck, geography and political winds than merit. Almost everyone directly involved—asylum-seekers, immigration lawyers and many judges—says the system is unfair and in dire need of reform. The reverberations of this dysfunction are profound: Asylum-seekers stuck in limbo have streamed into US cities, fueling an acrimonious debate that's become a defining clash of the presidential election. Worthy applicants are being punished by the system's shortcomings, forcing some back into the custody of the governments they've fled, resulting in imprisonment, torture and even death. Read The Big Take.

Listen to the podcast The US asylum process is meant to offer a fair shot at safe haven. On today's podcast, Bloomberg investigative reporter Monte Reel traces the arc of Yerandy Valdes Ruiz' journey from Cuba and how his case reveals flaws at the core of how immigration courts function.  Subscribe and listen on iHeart, Apple and Spotify.

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