Tough to get Asylum in York County

Asylum outcomes vary across the country. Daniel Paik reports for the Daily Record:

From fiscal years 2002 to 2007, immigration judges in York County denied asylum to three out of every four refugees, according to an analysis of more than 200 immigration judges in the country.

The average rate in the nation? About three out of five.

The data, compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, showed the frequency of asylum denials varied widely nationwide, sometimes within the same court.

It doesn’t reflect the current lineup on the local immigration bench, however. One of York’s judges moved to the Atlanta immigration court in 2006; her replacement arrived in 2007, and an additional judge was added to the county early this year.

The two York County judges analyzed in the report each denied asylum at a higher rate than the national average — combined, their denials were 18 percent higher than the average. Several attorneys who have tried cases in the local court struggled to pinpoint a major reason why it was so much higher. Click here for the rest of the story.

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