Legal Perspectives on U.S. Jurisprudence Regarding Central American Refugee Claims

In the past seven years, thousands of Central American refugees have fled to the United States in search of sanctuary from the terror and brutality in their homelands. Unfortunately, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which reviews asylum applications, characterizes these refugees as economic migrants and consistently denies their claims for protection. As a result, less than 4% of the Salvadoran and less than 1% of the Guatemala applications for asylum in the United States are accepted. The General Accounting Office found that although refugees from four selected countries allege similar experiences of actual persecution (arrest and subsequent torture), only 4% of the Salvadoran applications were granted as compared to 80% of the Polish and 64% of the Iranian applications.