Even for those asylum seekers who make it into the United States notwithstanding the many barriers they face, the asylum-seeking process can exacerbate survivors’ suffering and make healing more difficult. Factors that cause this include:
Legal representation, although critical, is often hard to obtain: Individuals represented by counsel are five times more likely to win their cases, and asylum seekers are often aware they are significantly more likely to succeed with representation. However, many private attorneys charge from $5,000 to $10,000, and organizations providing free or low-cost services are overwhelmed by high demand.
Even for the minority of asylum seekers who are able to find counsel, the process can be difficult and stress-inducing. As a result of the “Remain in Mexico” (or MPP) policy (see Fact 4 for more details), those waiting in Mexico have an even harder time obtaining legal representation. As their cases are still based on U.S. asylum law, their attorneys must be licensed in the United States. This makes effective communication extremely difficult, especially during the pandemic when safe travel is so limited. These are some of the reasons why asylum seekers in the United States are seven times more likely to find an attorney than those in Mexico.
Asylum seekers must wait before they can work: Even with the help of an attorney, asylum seekers previously had not been eligible for a work permit until six months after submitting their asylum applications (a process that can be lengthy as well), and due to a new rule imposed by the Trump administration, as of the end of August 2020, asylum seekers have to wait one year before they can submit their application for work authorization. Studies have demonstrated that unemployment negatively affects mental health. Indeed, for many of CVT’s clients – including doctors, lawyers, businesspeople and engineers, as well as others with more modest educational backgrounds – all of whom have suffered unimaginable loss, stable and fulfilling employment is a foundational step in healing and rebuilding their lives.
Lack of access to regular employment also exposes asylum seekers to exploitation and additional trauma as many have no choice but to work “off the books” for little money to afford basic needs—and for those without counsel, potentially an attorney. This already risky form of employment was even more difficult and dangerous during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being forced to remain indoors for longer periods of time and to live with the threat of catching the virus heightened trauma survivors’ symptoms and hindered their ability to heal. Those who were forced to work informally to survive sometimes faced unsafe work conditions – such as not being provided with a mask or other PPE equipment – without having the ability to report such conditions due to fear of reprisal.
The legal process can take years: Most asylum seekers face a years-long and often painful period of waiting. Unless and until they are granted asylum, they cannot bring even immediate family members living abroad into the United States, no matter the degree of danger those family members might face.
Because immigration courts closed and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (the agency in charge of conducting asylum interviews) was unable to conduct interviews at the height of the pandemic, these wait times significantly increased. Many of those subject to the “Remain in Mexico” policy had also been waiting for at least one year in dangerous Mexican border cities, but due to COVID-19 the MPP courts closed for several months, further delaying their cases.
“Clients tell us about years of waiting, without their families, without their children,” said Alison Beckman, MSW, LICSW, CVT senior clinician for external relations. “They feel so alone, without hope. The asylum process in the United States is like a void, nothing but waiting.”
Several of CVT’s asylum-seeking clients have described in their own words the anguish associated with family separation of this sort, which is often made worse by uncertainty surrounding their own status in the United States:
Torture and trauma survivors are forced repeatedly to re-live the trauma associated with their persecution: To develop a strong legal claim, survivors must tell the story of their persecution and suffering over and over—to their lawyer (repeatedly), to an immigration officer, to a doctor conducting a psychological evaluation, and sometimes in court in response to intrusive and often adversarial questioning by government attorneys and immigration judges. Survivors’ attorneys need to encourage them to remember in detail the pain they suffered so they can draft their clients’ declarations and develop convincing legal arguments (Note: There are effective ways for attorneys to minimize the potential for re-traumatization by working with mental health providers.)
Clients often must also participate in – if not lead – the evidence gathering process for their cases; asylum officers and immigration judges typically expect “hard evidence” of asylum seekers’ persecution, but most refugees flee without being able to give much thought to anything other than staying alive. As a result, they have little to no evidence beyond their word and the signs of past torture left on their body and mind. While testimony by medical and psychological experts that corroborates asylum seekers’ claims of human cruelty and abuse can strengthen their cases, these assessments are hard to obtain, with limited numbers of health professionals trained and willing to do them on a pro bono basis. Asylum-seekers must look for other evidence by contacting individuals back in their home countries, which is expensive, time consuming, and sometimes dangerous.
*Names and some details have been changed for security and confidentiality.
