Jennifer Gordon was quoted in a Politico article about the Trump administration’s policy to prosecute immigrants who enter the United States illegally.
Immigration law experts told us that some asylum cases can also be denied while still having viable claims.
It is not accurate to infer that because only 20 percent of claims were granted that the rest were not meritorious, said Jennifer Gordon, a law professor at Fordham Law School.
“Many cases are denied for procedural reasons not related to the merit of the claim, or because the applicants are unrepresented or poorly represented and therefore don’t have the chance to make their case in an effective way,” Gordon said. She also said that cases decided by asylum officers are not counted in the immigration court statistics.