If your family remains in Cuba without having suffered persecution, this fact could serve as an argument to deny asylum in the United States. This warning comes from immigration lawyer Willy Allen in a conversation with Tania Costa for CiberCuba, where he discusses how a legal precedent from 1998 is being increasingly used to undermine applications for international protection.
The case in question is Matter of A-E-M-, a decision from the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) which establishes that the fear of persecution of an applicant is considered less credible when their close relatives have been in the country of origin for an extended period without having been harmed.
According to Allen, the criterion is not new, but it is being applied with greater rigor today. "It has always existed; there has always been that point that needs to be reviewed," explained the lawyer, who added that the key is to demonstrate that the applicant has a risk profile different from that of their family.
The lawyer summarized the central argument facing the applicants. "If you are seeking political asylum from Colombia, Venezuela, China, Cuba, and your family continues to live there without facing persecution or problems, that can always be a factor they will use against you. It's always a factor that raises the question: how severe was your persecution if your family still lives there?"
The defensive strategy proposed by Allen consists of legally separating the applicant's situation from that of their relatives. He provided two specific examples: a Cuban persecuted for their sexual orientation has circumstances that their heterosexual family does not share; and a political activist who directly engaged in opposition to the regime differs from relatives who never participated in politics. "There is always a way to separate it in order to obtain what you are seeking," he stated.
This argument gains particular weight in the current context of extreme migration restrictions. According to Allen, the Trump administration has denied 94% of asylum claims in recent months, a figure that aligns with data from TRAC/Syracuse, which reported a denial rate of 94.1% in June 2026. Additionally, there have been 250,000 revoked visas and a 75% drop in the number of naturalizations.
"When you see that it is a government that has reduced the number of naturalized citizens by 75%, that is denying 94% of asylum claims, that has revoked 250,000 visas, you realize the position of a government that is completely anti-immigrant and is looking for ways to deny asylum," Allen pointed out.
The situation for Cubans is particularly challenging. The approval rate for asylum for applicants from the Island dropped to 7% in April 2026, and in June more than 1,600 deportation orders were issued against Cubans, with approximately 42,000 final orders pending execution.
This scenario is further compounded by a new precedent from the BIA, Matter of G-R-B-, issued on October 1, which allows a judge to reject an asylum application on their own initiative without the need for a prior motion from the Department of Homeland Security if the facts do not demonstrate eligibility at first glance.
Journalist Tania Costa, who hosts the program with Willy Allen on CiberCuba every Monday, also noted that assuming that the entire family shares the same views as the asylum seeker is a mistake. "There are families whose Christmas dinners turn into a real battleground when politics comes up," she said, emphasizing that family coexistence does not imply political alignment with the Cuban regime or the absence of risk for the seeker.
Allen was direct about what all of this means in practice: "Right now, when you have judges denying 94% of asylum cases, it makes everything just a bit more difficult."
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