People seeking protection who are ineligible for asylum can apply for another form of relief: withholding of removal.

Immigration policy changes under the Trump administration have forced some people to apply for withholding of removal instead of asylum—despite the fact that withholding is harder to win and provides fewer benefits.

Download

The American Immigration Council’s fact sheet—written in partnership with the National Immigrant Justice Center—explains how the two forms of relief compare.

Here are three facts to know:

• People applying for withholding of removal are held to a higher standard than people seeking asylum. There must be a greater than 50% chance of persecution, compare to 10% for asylum.
• Withholding of removal can only be granted by an immigration judge in an adversarial proceeding in immigration court, rather than asylum which can be granted by an asylum officer or an immigration judge.
• Most people placed in proceedings where they can only apply for withholding are held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities while they seek protection and are not given the opportunity to ask a judge for release.

The details of these policy changes are complex but are important to understand.

I hope you find our fact sheets, like this one, a useful resource in our collective fight to protect the most vulnerable.

 

Sincerely,
 

Beth Werlin
Executive Director