Political Activist Explains the Pain in Waiting
By Bushrah Namirimu | Observer Contributor
U.S. immigration courts have hit a historic backlog jam not seen in decades, generating multiyear delays for immigrants seeking asylum, according to a report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).
According to a Jan. 18 report from TRAC Immigration, there were almost 1.6 million “pending cases…at the end of December 2021…the largest in history.” TRAC also reported that “wait times” for an asylum claim hearing were averaging “58 months or just under 5 years.”
Now at the end of August 2022, there are almost 2 million pending cases, where 750,000 of these cases, according to a Sept. 27 New York Times article, are regarding asylum.
When political activist Hidaya Othieno (under an alias) decided to flee her home country Kenya to the U.S, she never anticipated that it would be over ten years before she would be granted asylum or even have her case heard by the immigration judge.
Othieno, who ran from Naivasha, Kenya, after several alleged assassination attempts by what she suspected were government agencies, said that she left behind five children, including a newborn baby girl who is now twelve years old. She said she was a widow by the time she ran out of the country, so her children were on their own without a parent.
Forty-six-year-old Othieno expressed her disappointment in the U.S government regarding how slowly issues concerning asylum have been handled. For the last ten years or so, every time Hidaya received mail, she would feel a pang of hope, imagining that her life could now begin. But each time, there was disappointment – it wasn’t her asylum decision.
“It’s like I’m stuck; my life is frozen. It has no meaning at all. I wanted to regain my freedom, but I am not free at all,” Othieno said. She added that her mental health had suffered greatly during the years she has waited for a decision. Every year, people come to the United States seeking protection because they have suffered persecution or fear that they will suffer persecution.
This caseload is one that has continued to climb through both Democratic and Republican administrations, according to the TRAC report. This report explained that when President Bush became president in 2001, the number of backlogged cases was 149,338. However, TRAC said that “by 2008, the backlog had grown substantially and continued to grow under President Obama [and]…accelerated under President Trump.”
According to the Human Rights First (HRF) organization, “the asylum office backlog grew to more than 386,000 pending applications by the end of fiscal year 2020, with the highest number of pending applications from Venezuela.”
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