94% of Asylum Cases Are Now Being Denied as Trump Reshapes Immigration Courts in Massive Overhaul

MIAMI, FLORIDA - MAY 25: Marvin Suazo, 43, passes through a TSA checkpoint at the Miami airport on May 25, 2026 in Miami, Florida, while self-deporting to Honduras. He family originally immigrated to the United States in 2014, seeking asylum and eventually settling in Big Sky, Montana. Although his elder daughter Samantha and his wife Maribel received permanent U.S. residency, Marvin remained undocumented due to previous deportation. In early 2026, ICE agents deported six of his employees following a raid. Under immense stress, this spring the family made the difficult decision to sacrifice family cohesion: Suazo would self-deport to Honduras and the rest of the family would remain living in the United States. Following Samantha's May 18 graduation from Yale University, the family traveled on one last trip together, this time down the U.S. eastern coast, visiting Washington, DC as well as Orlando and Miami, Florida. From there he flew back to the mountainous coffee country of central Honduras he had left a dozen years before. (Credit: Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Asylum denials in U.S. immigration courts reached a record 94.1% in June as the Trump administration replaced hundreds of immigration judges and the number of cases being decided climbed to new highs, according to an analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC.

Only 771 people were granted asylum that month, less than a quarter of the number three years earlier. The asylum grant rate fell to 5.5%, while another 0.4% of applicants were denied asylum but received another form of relief.