It is no surprise to many people in Camden County that drug violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador has increased in the past five years, but they may be shocked that an estimated two-thirds of all applicants seeking asylum come from these three countries. With an estimated 48,000 people filing for asylum by the end of the year, that could make for approximately 32,000 people from these three countries looking to become permanent residents of the United States.
For any Central American asylum seekers that make it to Cherry Hill, they will need to work with an asylum lawyer to prove past persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution in order to be successful in their applications. Not only do they need to show they will be persecuted, but they need to show that they will be persecuted for a limited number of reasons, including race, nationality, political opinion, religion, membership in a particular social group or because of a risk of torture. The rules are very specific and failing to comply with them will mean the immigrant will be sent back to the country he or she was trying to escape.
The associate director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services had planned on testifying at a congressional hearing on asylum last month, but the hearing was cancelled. It is expected that he will tell Congress about the spike in Central American asylum seekers next week. In his remarks, he will also note that the number of Central American applicants has quadroupled in the last five years alone.
Source: Fox News Latino, "Central Americans Seeking Asylum Quadrupled In Last Five Years," July 17, 2013
