Pubdate: Sat, 03 Apr 2010
Source: Brownsville Herald, The (TX)
Copyright: 2010 The Brownsville Herald
Contact: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/sections/contact/
Website: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1402
Author: Jazmine Ulloa

BORDER VIOLENCE BRINGS ASYLUM POLICY INTO QUESTION

Journalist Emilio Gutierrez Soto fled Mexico in 2008,  after receiving
death threats believed to stem from  military personnel, according to
media reports. At a  port of entry in western Texas, Soto voluntarily
approached border agents seeking asylum, but for the  next seven
months, he was confined to immigration  detention in El Paso.

Soto is among the estimated tens of thousands of  Mexican nationals,
including many journalists,  officials and business leaders, who have
relocated to  the United States since Mexican President Felipe
Calderon launched a sweeping offensive against drug  organizations in
2006. But because the legal standards  of asylum are so high - and
some researchers say even  outdated - many, like Soto, face
devastating challenges  when it comes to reaching a safe haven in the
United  States.

The recent Mexican migration spurred by the drug  violence, some
experts predict, will push the need for  immigration reform and
precipitate a reconsideration of  U.S. standards for asylum overtime.

"Bringing the visa system into sync with the U.S.  market demand
(through immigration reform) will ease  the pressure from illegal
immigration," said Susan  Ginsburg, a nonresident fellow of the
Migration Policy  Institute. "We will then have more latitude to
adjust  the asylum system to deal with 21st century
asylum-seekers."

Asylum petitioners must currently demonstrate they have  a "credible
fear of persecution" in their country  because of their race,
ethnicity, religion, political  views or social group, according to
the U.S. Bureau of  Citizenship and Immigration Services.

But few people seeking to flee the violence in Mexico  win cases of
asylum, even as many are becoming  informants for U.S. officials, said
Howard Campbell, an  anthropology professor at the University of Texas
at El  Paso.

"There are thousands of people who have the same story  and whose
story is legitimate," he said.

When Calderon initiated the battle against drug cartels  in 2006, for
instance, the United States received 2,793  asylum petitions from
Mexico and 3,042 the following  year - only 49, or less than 2
percent, were granted  status each year, according to data compiled
from U.S.  immigration courts by the Executive Office for  Immigration
Review under the U.S. Department of  Justice.

The number of Mexican asylum applications granted has  steadily
increased but is a minimal percentage of the  multitude. In 2008, 72,
or about 2 percent, out of the  3,459 petitions received were
approved, while in 2009,  62, or about 2.2 percent, of 2,816
applications were  granted asylum status.

The reason so many petitions are rejected is that  asylum standards
were set in an older time period,  Ginsburg said. Most people who have
qualified for the  status have fled communist regimes, dictatorships
and  civil wars - not criminal violence or genuine fear of  violent
death at the hands of drug gangs.

"We are used to seeing the need for protection from  governments and
states, and this (the migration we are  seeing now) is a fear of
persecution from nonstate  actors, criminal gangs that have taken
control of areas  of the country.

"On the one hand, you do not want to provide a  completely open door.
On the other hand, the standards  we have now reflect an older era." 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D