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Cassaundra Matiska
English Comp. 101
Prof. Carlin Mackie
14/05/2015
How does Communism play a role in the U.S asylum policies?
The United States of America has always been a nation of immigrants who have traveled
near and far to escape persecution. However, U.S. politics have stopped us from being able to
fully help those who are in need. The U.S. tends to only care about those seeking asylum and
refuge if our government has special interests in the areas that the seekers come from. Those who
come from countries that have a Communist regime are more likely to grant asylum and
protection. Looking further into the immigration and asylum policies we see exactly how the
U.S. is able to deny protection while still pursuing our own political interests.
When we look at the U.S. asylum and refugee policy we will notice things that seem
troubling. Before the 1980 reform, refugees and asylum seekers were admitted under a mishmash
of policies that included withholding of deportation, conditional entry status, and parole (Drake).
None of these procedures actually benefited the large spectrum of asylum-seekers and refugees
that were to come into the U.S. The seekers would have to prove that they were facing
persecution in their country of origin often fleeing from countries that had Communist
governments or were in the Middle East. However, after the 1980 reform the definition of
asylum and refugees had changed making it harder for people to be granted asylum. The new
definition of refugee, has been stated as:
Any person who is outside any country of such persons nationality or, in
the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which

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such person last habitually resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return
to, and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of,
that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on
account of race, religion, nationality, membership in particular social group,
or political opinion. (Drake)
However, our immigration policy also has a definition to distinguish between refugees
and asylum-seekers. A refugee satisfies the definition of refugee but lives outside of the
U.S., while the way asylum-seekers are defined as someone who meets the definition of
refugee, but they have to be inside of the U.S. This causes a lot of issues for those who
are trying to seek asylum because their country of origin is too dangerous for them to
live there anymore. Our immigration policy has a zero tolerance when it comes to
undocumented workers who often are threatened by the INS and very likely to be
deported. While the numbers of asylum-seekers and refugees grow, the number being
admitted into the U.S. seems to dwindle.
In 2014 the U.S. had received 41,920 asylum applications, and yet granted only
8,777 applications (U.S. Department of Justice). There could be several reasons for this.
One could be the lengthy application process that causes many to withdraw their
application and reapply later in hopes that it will be processed faster. When we look at
exactly who does get asylum and who doesnt we see a disturbing trend. Countries that
are notoriously Communist, like Colombia and China tend to have more granted
applications than their counterparts like Mexico and El Salvador. Even though China
and Colombia have human rights violations much like Mexico and El Salvador, our
policy is much more in favor of them because their human rights violations are also in

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relation to a political party that we dont agree with while Mexico and El Salvador are
terrifyingly overrun by drug cartels and gangs.
Taking the two countries that sent in the largest amounts of applications in 2014,
China and Mexico, we see that 83% of applications from China are accepted while a
measly 1.4% of applications from Mexico are accepted (U.S. Department of Justice).
Does this prove that the U.S. is more interested in political interest rather than
protecting the lives of humans? Maybe. What it does show is evidence that U.S.
definitely does care about political affiliation.
A lot of our own citizens still have anti-immigrant sentiment and our
government officials are consistently lobbied by several anti-immigrant lobby groups
(Cheng), even though we are learning more and more of the destruction that is currently
happening in a lot of these countries. People still believe that most immigrants travel to
our country because of economic reasons (Cheng). However, this isnt true at all. Most
people are seeking refuge and asylum in our country because, although with troubles of
our own, its much safer for them to be here than to be anywhere else. The U.S. asylum
and refugee policies are currently muddled with political interests which weve
learned. Most of these applicants are passed over with no consideration simply because
their countries dont threaten us politically.
To better understand this we need to understand exactly how these political
affiliations drive fear into the hearts of the American people. Communism isnt a new
thing that we as a people have feared. A Communist government, by definition, the
people have no privately owned property. Everything belongs to the government, and
the people are supposed to benefit. The United States was formed based on the ideals

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that we as citizens will have the opportunity to know, and are allowed to have a voice in
what happens in our country. Communism created a fear of losing ones own private
rights loss of their private property, loss of sanctity of their homes, and even more, the
loss of individualism (May). The United States has and will always be fearful of the loss
of our personal freedom.
When our government gets in applications from countries in which personal
freedom are seen has being a threat we feel as though we cant sit back and do nothing.
Mexico and China have such different acceptance numbers for this reason. We view
China, a communist country, as being more of a threat and a human rights violation than
Mexico, a country that has democracy yet suffering at the hands of drug cartels, and
gangs.
In order to be able to fully help all of our allies, we need to change the thinking
of the United States government, and their citizens. The United States prides itself on
always helping those get democracy yet were refusing basic human rights, like life,
when we tell people that because their countries are not threatening our democracy that
they have no reason to ask for help because the personal freedoms of the people still
exist. Scholars have spoken about how our immigration and asylum/refugee policies
need a reform (Drake). What hasnt been said, is how our reform should take place, and
if the social liberties of the country are a better reason to have asylum over the safety of
the people.

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Works Cited
Cheng, Gracye. "Gang persecutions as grounds for asylum in the US." Forced Migration Review
(n.d.): 50-51.
Drake, Whitney. "Disparate Treatment: A Comparison of United States Immigration Policies
Toward Asylum Seekers and Refugees from Colombia and Mexico." Texas Hispanic
Journal of Law and Policy (2014): 122-123.
May, Elaine. "Security against Democracy: The Legacy of the Cold War at Home ." The Journal
of American History (2011): 939-943.
U.S. Department of Justice. Asylum Statistics. Statistics. Washington D.C.: U.S. Department of
Justice, 2010-2014.