Asylum and refugee law
The law relating to persons coming to the US after fleeing persecution in their homeland involves international and domestic law. The law includes many complex statutes and regulations. Persons eligble include asylees, refugees, persons seeking withholding of removal, deferred enforced departure and temporary protected status.
Fleeing Persecution
The INS defines refugee as, "A person outside of his/her country of nationality and not within the US or at the borders of the US, who is unable or unwilling to return to that country due to persecution or "a well founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular group or polictical opinion." The following details some requirements for each of these sub-categories:
Religion - Non-citizens can base an asylum claim on fear of being persecuted on account of their religion. A non-citizen may demonstrate this persecution by proving he or she has had to conceal the religious practices for fear of repercussions.
Nationality - Does not just include citizenship to another country, but extends to membership in a linguistic or ethnic group, and may overlap with race or religion.
Political Opinion - May be the actual political opinion a non-citizen holds or that opinion the persecutor believes the non-citizen to have.
Membership in a Particular Social Group - A social group can be defined as a group that shares a common, immutable characteristic. Groups who have been considered persecuted for asylum purposes have been women, families, those with HIV, or those persecuted because of their sexual orientation.
Did you know?
- Children and spouses of persons admitted as refugees are admitted as refugees as well; even children not yet born at the time the parent was admitted.
- To establish a "well founded fear" a person must have a reasonable possibility of persecution.
- A person granted refugee status or political asylum may apply for permanent residence after one year.