The administration this week revealed that illegal youths seeking asylum has soared nearly 2,000 percent, and it put an official number on those protected from deportation under the controversial Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals at 723,282.
An annual report to Congress from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman Maria M. Odom also noted that the backlog for asylum requests has topped “well over 100,000,” in part because of the surge of Latin American youths stream across the border who are seeking asylum.
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The report said said that requests from unaccompanied children crossed 14,000, and their applications take precedence over adults seeking asylum. Three years ago the number was 718, but “In FY 2015, that number swelled to 14,218, an almost 2,000 percent increase,” it said.
Overall, the backlog of asylum cases has jumped nearly 1,400 percent, Odom added.
“USCIS’ inventory of pending affirmative asylum cases has ballooned over the last 5 years. At the conclusion of FY 2011, the affirmative asylum inventory numbered 9,274 applications. By December 31, 2015, that total had soared to 128,308 cases—a nearly 1400 percent increase in backlogged cases,” said her report.
It also included details about the president’s DACA program that the Supreme Court split on, allowing a lower court’s decision to halt it to remain in place.
So far, said Odom, the program implemented to defer deportation has covered 723,282 illegal youths. Said her report, “Since implementation late 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has allowed approximately 723,282 recipients to live and work in the United States without fear of removal.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
