No.
There is no evidence that 90% of asylum claims are fraudulent. While estimates for the number of asylum applications granted in recent years vary widely — from 20-50% — suspected fraud accounts for a small fraction of unsuccessful claims. According to immigration experts, legitimate claims are routinely unsuccessful for procedural reasons, such as not having a lawyer, rather than a lack of merit.
A 2015 Government Accountability Office report found that between fiscal years 2010 and 2014, asylum claims terminated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services because of fraud fell from 103 to 34. For comparison, the agency granted more than 76,000 asylum claims during that time.
USCIS and the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which handle asylum proceedings, both have units dedicated to detecting fraudulent claims.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs, or quick-response fact checks, about trending claims relating to Arizona.
Sources
- National Immigration Forum, Fact Sheet: Asylum Fraud and Immigration Court Absentia Rates
- United States Government Accountability Office, Asylum: Additional Actions Needed to Assess and Address Fraud Risks
- Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General, DHS Needs to Improve Its Screening and Vetting of Asylum Seekers and Noncitizens Applying for Admission into the United States,
- Politifact, Jeff Sessions' false claim that 80 percent of asylum applications are without merit,
- Politifact, Are the vast majority of asylum claims without merit?
- Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Asylum Grant Rates Decline by a Third
- National Immigration Forum, Adjudication by USCIS Asylum Officers: Explainer
- US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Obtaining Asylum in the United States,
- American Immigration Council, Asylum in the United States
- Migration Policy Institute, Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States
- Executive Office for Immigration Review, Asylum Decisions
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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is partnering with Gigafact to produce timely fact briefs, or quick-response fact checks, about trending claims relating to Arizona.
