The number of asylum cases pending before the federal government are in the hundreds of thousands, a figure that increased in recent years due to an influx of migrants from Central America and Venezuela.
The rise in such cases has been a focus in the Trump administration. In April, the president called on the two departments in charge of deciding asylum cases — Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice — to implement new changes to the asylum process that would seek to not only process claims faster, but charge asylum seekers money to apply and, in some cases, prevent asylum seekers from working in the United States until status is granted.
Here’s a look at the growing asylum backlog and where the asylum seekers are coming from.
