The Asylumist : How to Seek Asylum in the United States and Keep Your Sanity Paperback (2021)
The Asylumist: How to Seek Asylum in the United States and Keep Your Sanity Paperback (2021)
**Reviewed by Spencer Farber
The US asylum system is undoubtedly complex. Knowing how to navigate it is enough of a challenge for practicing, native English-speaking lawyers. Now imagine having to comprehend it as an asylum seeker who needs protection to remain in the United States. Without a guide, it is an impossible task. That’s where Jason Dzubow’s The Asylumist comes in.
Dzubow is a Washington D.C.-based lawyer who specializes in asylum law, and has helped hundreds of asylum seekers in their quest to gain permanent asylum in the U.S. In this book, he breaks down each step of the asylum process with specificity and numerous real-life examples. In twelve chapters, he covers everything from the language that an asylum seeker should use in interviews to the process of hiring the right lawyer for their case. He manages to be detailed without overexplaining, and outlines the meanings of complex words and phrases.
Establishing a credible asylum case is more challenging than it might appear. An asylum officer wants applicants to remember certain information, like dates and names, that they would not naturally remember. “Human memory works in a certain way, where we remember things but we don’t necessarily peg them to a date,” Jason told me in an interview.
Preparing an affidavit is one of the most important parts of the asylum process for the applicant. Dzubow outlines this process thoroughly in Chapter Two of The Asylumist, giving asylum applicants some “dos” and “don’ts” that they would likely have not known of otherwise. He stresses the value of including details in order to back up an applicant’s claim of past persecution because of their beliefs or membership in a particular social group. The vast majority of TASSC clients have fled their home countries because of threats to their safety due to their political opinions.
On page 61, Dzubow cites the following example from an affidavit as effective: “As soon as I left the opposition political party meeting, three policemen stopped me on the street. They accused me of supporting the opposition party. One of the men punched me in the stomach and I could not breathe for a few moments.” Sparing no details will increase the likelihood that an asylum officer considers a claim of past persecution as credible. This is especially key for TASSC torture survivors that cannot return to their home country where they were tortured.
Dzubow sees President Joe Biden’s immigration legacy as somewhat of a mixed bag. Under Biden, the affirmative asylum backlog continued to grow. Most TASSC survivors are affirmative asylum applicants who entered the United States legally with visas. One of the major causes for this backlog is the harmful Last In, First Out (LIFO) policy which Biden kept in place after it was instituted by the Trump Administration. Last In, First Out prioritizes interviews with USCIS, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) with newer asylum seekers over those who applied a number of years ago. This has led to an affirmative asylum backlog that affects many TASSC clients that applied 7, 8 or even 9 years ago. However, the Biden administration did reverse many of the anti-immigrant policies enacted by the Trump administration, such as the Muslim travel ban, and helped increase legal pathways for migrants.
“Because of LIFO, people who filed years ago end up being separated from their family and living here in limbo for many years,” Jason told me, “and are further traumatized and harmed. My feeling is we should return to First in, First out. Moving through the backlog that way would be much more fair.” That means that TASSC torture survivors who applied for asylum in 2016 or 2017 would be interviewed by USCIS before applicants who applied in 2023 or 2024.
With anti-immigrant rhetoric running rampant, and a complicated system that will have new challenges if Donald Trump is elected, it is more important now than ever for asylum seekers to have the right people on their side. The United States needs people like Jason Dzubow that are willing to stand up to false, hateful narratives.
**Spencer Farber was an Advocacy Intern at TASSC in Summer 2024. He is a rising junior at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles studying Political Science and Journalism.