Explaining Disparities in Asylum Claims

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of institutional design and legal culture on asylum adjudication. Noting a disparity in the rates at which asylum is granted by Immigration Judges and Asylum Corps Officers, this paper sets forth several hypotheses that may explain the disparity. Highlighting features of each forum that may be associated with approval rates, this paper suggests that the two-tiered asylum adjudication system encourages asylum-seekers with the strongest claims to utilize affirmative application procedures while dissuading those with weaker claims from presenting their claims to asylum officers. Moreover, this paper argues that institutional features of asylum adjudication engender an ethos that favors asylum applicants in the Asylum Corps but disfavors them in the Immigration Courts. Accordingly, changing the patterns of asylum adjudications requires changes to both workplace structure and workplace culture.

Keywords: asylum, administrative law, public law