Asylum Protection
Asylum
What is asylum?
Asylum is a protection granted to foreign nationals who are already in the United States or who arrive at the border and meet the definition of "refugee" under international law.
The 1951 United Nations Convention and 1967 Protocol define a refugee as a person who is unable or unwilling to return to his or her country of origin and cannot obtain protection in that country, due to past persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution “for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”
The United States Congress incorporated this definition into United States immigration law in the Refugee Act of 1980.
Who is eligible?
I- Asylum law is very complex. Typically, a person must apply for asylum within one year of his or her most recent arrival in the United States.
Every year people come to the United States seeking protection because they have suffered persecution or fear they will suffer persecution due to:
- Raza,
- Religion,
- Nationality,
- Belonging to a particular social group,
- Political opinion,
- Or for fear of being tortured
Only an immigration attorney has the knowledge of what the Courts have determined constitutes a "Particular Social Group." Each Circuit in this country recognizes different Particular Social Groups. For example, the Eleventh Circuit, to which Florida belongs, may recognize a Social Group that the Ninth Circuit does not recognize and vice versa. Notaries public are not attorneys and do not have this knowledge.
There are many Cubans today who can apply for asylum. Cuban asylums can be political but it can also be argued that they are based on belonging to particular social groups, or even religious ones. For example, historically many Cubans who are Jehovah's Witnesses have been granted asylum. There is one very famous particular social group under which a Cuban who was homosexual was granted asylum many years ago.
Only an immigration attorney has the training to argue this in the Immigration Courts. Notaries in the United States are not necessarily lawyers. In the United States, a person can become a notary by taking a course of several hours in a single day or even online. A lawyer studies for approximately seven (7) years.
If you are Cuban, and you have an I-220A, and you are not an incoming alien, you do not currently qualify for the Cuban Adjustment Act. You should consult with an attorney to see if you have a case for asylum.
II- There are two main ways in which a person can apply for asylum in the United States: the affirmative process and the defensive process.
- Affirmative Asylum: An individual who is not in removal proceedings may affirmatively apply for asylum through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). If the USCIS asylum officer does not grant the asylum application and the applicant does not have lawful immigration status, the applicant is referred to immigration court for removal proceedings, where he or she may renew the asylum application through the defensive process and appear before an immigration judge.
- Defensive Asylum: A person in removal proceedings may apply for defensive asylum by filing an application with an immigration judge at the Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).
An asylum seeker has the burden of proving that he or she meets the definition of a refugee. Asylum seekers often provide substantial evidence throughout the affirmative and defensive processes demonstrating past persecution or that they have a "well-founded fear" of future persecution in their home country.
Key differences between the “Affirmative Asylum” and “Asylum Defense” processes
SOURCE: https://www.uscis.gov/en/humanitarian-programs/refugees-and-asylum/asylum/obtaining-asylum-in-the-united-states