US Immigration Court

Friday the 25 we continued our encounter of America with a visit to the US Immigration Court. Boiling it down, the Court is the main and legal gateway for hopeful immigrants, seeking to be reunited with family, escaping political, racial, religious persecution or whatever urged people to go look up their luck in America. Today was no different. And then maybe a little.

Because, as the first asylum seeker, a male from the Ivory Coast, entered the court so did we. The whole HIA team packing up the court room with notebooks, business casuals and attentive listening, that only grew as the interpreter struggled his way through stories of rape, imprisonment, killing, political prosecution and an illegal journey ending in New York. Not that the 26-years old asylum seeking male in particular noticed the name of the city, when he sat foot on American soil. Probably the feeling of making it to the other side shook off the need of checking up the nearest road sign. He was in America - what else is there to wish for?
But even though it might not matter at first to our immigrant from the Ivory Coast, there is a lot to wish for and even though he might be a bit disturbed by the 20 business casuals looking at him from the guest seats as he goes through his life story, it turns up to be a stroke of luck, that he is sitting in exactly this court room in exactly this city.

Even though the change of being granted asylum is 44 percent, it turns out that the numbers differs in the nation's 54 Immigrants Courts. A Chinese immigrant seeking asylum in fear of persecution has 76 percent chance of being granted so in Orlando, but only 7 percent in Atlanta. And just to add to the confusing, getting in the right court room is not necessarily enough. Studies show that Colombians had 88 percent chance of winning asylum from one judge in the Miami Court but only 5 percent from another judge in the same court. Circumstances as lack of witnesses, passports or other documents means that the nation's more than 200 judges must go through cases based on scant or subjective information. Add to this, that the time is little as the judge determine wether or not the nation is going to welcome a new immigrant.

In the case of today's asylum seeker from the Ivory Coast this description is no different. He claims asylum due to political persecution - one out of five internationally recognized grounds for gaining asylum. Race, religion, nationality and membership in particular social group being the other grounds. With no passport and no documents that the court finds credible, the ruling is based on examine on the story, as it bit by bit unfolds in the court room.
New York is one of the cities that grants a high percentage of asylum. And today's case is not an exception. Though the State attorney do not find him credible, our guy in the court room is granted the asylum he hoped for. And though he has to update the English vocabulary with the word 'income tax' and even more important the understanding of this action, he walks out of there with an permit to American.