Reading about the flood of children now arriving on U.S. shores from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, those of us not well versed in immigration law might assume that children who can demonstrate that they will be in imminent danger of death from gangs terrorizing their home towns if deported will be granted asylum. That is probably not so.
Determinations of refugee status or asylum in the U.S. are governed by the Refugee Act of 1980, which derives its criteria from the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees approved by the U.N. in 1951. To be granted asylum, an applicant
Determinations of refugee status or asylum in the U.S. are governed by the Refugee Act of 1980, which derives its criteria from the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees approved by the U.N. in 1951. To be granted asylum, an applicant
"must prove that he or she would be persecuted on account of one of five protected grounds: race, religion, nationality, political opinion, and social group."If the gangs in question are equal opportunity terrorizers, it's hard to see at first glance how those criteria would be met.
