How difficult is it to gain asylum in the United States?

As our discussion on Monday lead to asylum more particularly asylum to the United States; it was brought up how difficult it must be to gain asylum to the U.S. In this blog I would like to address the facts of asylum to the United States.

According the the Department of Homeland Security the 2010 facts for asylum go like this:

• Total number of refugee arrivals were 73,293. 71.8% of those refugees were from Asia.
• The US granted 21,113 of refugees were granted asylum in 2010
• US can grant travel loans to asylum seekers and their families
• Must complete the Assurance process handled by the U.S. Government
• The refugee must be medically screened by a health care professional working for the U.S.  government
• A security clearance is also needed to gain access to the U.S.
• The average time it takes the U.S. to process all the forms and clearances is 180 days.

With those facts a refugee only has a 29% chance of being granted asylum from the U.S. If a person who needs asylum doesn't have access to the proper forms, a health care professional working for the U.S., or is in risk of dying with in 6 months they are out of luck. As anyone can tell this is ridiculous, but sadly the U.S. grants the 2nd most out of all other countries. This means all of our regulations are actually easier to deal with than most. 

The system needs to be reformed and that is going to take years; but as reference of a Chinese proverb "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is today."  

Sources:

http://www.shautsova.com/law-publications/usa-asylum-facts-statistics.html

http://www.refugees.org/about-us/faqs.html

http://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum/asylum/faq/how-long-does-process-take

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/05/world/asia/refugees-asylum-statistics