US asylum grant rate falls to about 5% under Trump Justice Department

Right · 2Federal data released by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) show the asylum success rate in US immigration courts has fallen to about 5%. 1 2 Right · 1Breitbart reports that the grant rate for migrants without lawyers has fallen to just above 1%, down from 20% under President Joe Biden. 1 Right · 2Breitbart describes the 5% figure as one-tenth of the approval rate under Biden. A Washington Examiner opinion column says TRAC put the grant rate above 50% earlier in Biden's term and at 32% when he left office, so the fall from 32% to 5.5% is about 83%, and the decline began before this administration. 1 2

Right · 2The Justice Department has replaced much of the immigration bench. TRAC counts 279 immigration judges fired or resigned across fiscal 2025 and 2026, about 38% of the bench, while Breitbart cites the replacement of roughly 300 judges. In May the department swore in 77 permanent and five temporary judges, its largest class, most from ICE, prosecutors' offices or the military. 2 1 Right · 2The Board of Immigration Appeals has also changed the rules. Last month it ruled that a judge may dismiss an asylum application on the written record without waiting for the Department of Homeland Security to request it. The Justice Department has also issued a regulation letting immigration judges sanction misconduct by attorneys, parties and certain witnesses. 2 1 Right · 2Both outlets cite a backlog of about 2.3 million asylum cases. The Examiner puts total pending cases at about 3.1 million and says the Justice Department claims to have trimmed the docket by more than 485,000 cases since January 2025. Breitbart, citing TRAC, says the roughly 700 immigration judges processed almost one million cases, about five times the roughly 200,000 processed annually before 2021. 1 2

Right · 1Causation is contested. The Examiner column notes that TRAC cautions denial rates reflect each judge's docket, representation and nationality, and that a low grant rate doesn't prove a denied claim was weak or fraudulent. It adds that of 130 judges who decided asylum cases every year from fiscal 2021 to 2026, three-fourths denied more in 2026 than in 2021, by an average of 33 points. 2 Right · 2Critics of the changes include HIAS, which said the administration has taken steps that threaten court independence and due process rights, and former immigration judge Dana Leigh Marks, who called it "a hurricane-force wind against judicial independence". The Examiner column says advocates argue that skipping hearings denies applicants their day in court. 1 2 Right · 2Supporters of the changes, including the Immigration Accountability Project, argue that asylum had been exploited by economic migrants and cartels, and that faster processing removes the incentive. The Examiner's author also backs the shift but argues Congress should write the screening standard into the Immigration and Nationality Act, set minimum experience for temporary judges, require written reasons when hearings are skipped, and mandate quarterly judge-level data, so the rules do not change with each administration. 1 2