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The White House celebrated an unprecedented drop in the approval rate of asylum applications in U.S. immigration courts this Friday.
According to data from the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), a branch of the Department of Justice, in the first half of fiscal year 2026, only 8.8% of resolved cases resulted in grants —the lowest figure recorded in over a decade.
The official account of the Rapid Response 47 administration published a graphic this Friday with data from the EOIR and celebrated it as an achievement: "Under Biden, immigration judges granted nearly half of all asylum applications that resulted in approval or denial. Under President Trump, that percentage has fallen to just 8.8%, with a trend towards further decline."
The detailed analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies published on Thursday by researcher Andrew R. Arthur provides a comprehensive historical perspective: the approval rate peaked under Biden, with 48.1% in fiscal year 2023 and 45.7% in 2024, only to plummet to 24.4% in fiscal year 2025 and reach the current low of 8.8% so far in fiscal year 2026.
If we calculate based on the total universe of decisions —including abandonments, withdrawals, and administrative closures— the figure is even lower: out of more than 150,500 decisions made during that period, only 5,086 were grants, which represents just 3.4% of the total.
Arthur attributes the decline to two simultaneous factors: the policy changes under Trump's second term and the legacy of the previous administration.
"Changes in policy can be attributed to Trump II, and the lack of screening of the so-called 'asylum seekers' at the borders and ports under Biden can be blamed for this trend," wrote the analyst, adding that the Democratic government's "catch and release" policies "left judges with a large volume of weak applications to reject."
Among the specific measures that explain the collapse are several opinions issued by Attorney General Pam Bondi, which limited the ability to request asylum for gang violence and domestic violence abroad.
The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) also instructed judges on how to deny applications under "safe third country" agreements and authorized them to reject incomplete applications without the need for substantive hearings, thereby expediting the denial process.
These measures are complemented by the hiring of 120 new immigration judges trained in just three to four weeks — shortening the usual training period — with instructions to grant asylum "only under rare circumstances," as revealed by Bloomberg Law.
In November 2025, the administration temporarily froze all asylum decisions while reviewing security protocols following an attack carried out by an Afghan citizen with asylum status. Months later, in May 2026, it imposed an annual fee of $102 on pending applications older than one year, risking automatic rejection if not paid within 30 days.
The data on the asylum approval rate, which had already fallen to 7% in February 2026, according to figures from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), confirms a trend that the Trump administration not only does not hide but actually showcases as a sign of success for its immigration policy.
Arthur concludes his analysis with a clear projection: "It is to be expected that asylum denials will increase and grants will decrease, both in actual numbers and as a percentage of total decisions, at least while Trump is president."
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