US Asylum Denials Reach Record as Just 5.5% of Cases Were Approved in June
Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.
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- US immigration judges approved asylum in just 5.5% of cases in June 2026, while 94% were denied, according to Syracuse University’s TRAC project.
- The 771 people granted asylum represented less than one-quarter of the number approved in June 2023.
- Case completions reached record levels after the hiring of hundreds of immigration judges, although decisions had fallen to 8,800 in November and December 2025 after numerous judges were dismissed.
US immigration courts denied asylum in 94% of cases in June, leaving only 5.5% approved, according to a new analysis by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
Judges granted asylum to 771 people in June 2026. That was less than one-quarter of the number who received asylum in June 2023. In March 2023, approved applications still outnumbered denied cases, with approvals at 48%.
TRAC found that denials had begun rising during the administration of President Joe Biden, from 2021 to 2023. Under the current administration, the denial rate increased from 60% to 94%, the report said.
The courts are also closing more cases. After several hundred new immigration judges were hired, asylum decisions reached record levels. More than 13,000 cases were completed in April and May, while the total exceeded 14,000 in both March and June 2026.
The pace has not been steady. After the administration of Donald Trump dismissed numerous judges, the number of decisions fell. In November and December 2025, asylum decisions dropped to 8,800.
About this summary
Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.
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