Refugee Roulette
Disparities in Asylum Adjudication and Proposals for Reform
60 Stanford L. Rev. 295 (2007).
Andrew I. Schoenholtz
Philip G. Schrag
Jaya Ramji-Nogales
Publications
- Refugee Roulette, 60 STANFORD L. REV. 295 (2007).
- Margaret H. Taylor, “Refugee Roulette in an Administrative Law Context: The Deja vu of Decisional Disparities in Agency Adjudication,” 60 Stanford Law Rev. 475.
- Stephen H. Legomsky, “Learning to Live with Unequal Justice: Asylum and the Limits on Consistency,” 60 Stanford Law Rev. 413.
Datasets
USCIS Asylum Office data:
- Asylum officer decisions from 11 asylee-producing countries, by asylum officer.
- Asylum Appeals from the Board of Immigration Appeals, all circuits 2004 (this is the file titled “Asylum 2004 statistics”).
- Asylum Appeals from the Board of Immigration Appeals, all circuits 2005 (this is the file titled “Asylum 2005 statistics”).
Immigration Court data:
- Immigration Judge Decisions in Asylum Cases, January 2000 – August, 2004.
- Biographical information about Immigration Judges Active from January 2000 – August 2004.
Crosstabulations and regression results:
Board of Immigration Appeals data:
| FY 1998 | FY 2001 | FY 2004 |
| FY 1999 | FY 2002 | FY 2005 |
| FY 2000 | FY 2003 |
U.S. Court of Appeals data:
- Asylum Appeals from the Board of Immigration Appeals, all circuits, 2004.
- Asylum Appeals from the Board of Immigration Appeals, all circuits, 2005.
Research Tools:
Related articles written or co-authored by Andrew I. Schoenholtz:
- Andrew I. Schoenholtz, “Refugee Protection in the United States Post-September 11th,” 36 Columbia Human Rights Law Review 323 (2005).
- Andrew I. Schoenholtz and Jonathan Jacobs, “The State of Asylum Representation: Ideas for Change,” 16 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 739 (2002).
- Susan F. Martin and Andrew I. Schoenholtz, “Asylum in Practice: Successes, Failures and the Challenges Ahead” 14 Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 589 Spring (2000).
- Reports of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
- CALS Asylum Research Guide (contains many useful links for research in asylum cases).
Classroom Tools:
- A PowerPoint file that you can download here includes most of the graphs in the article (and some others) and may be used in classrooms without further permission from the authors. Please credit the authors, however. The graphs are in full color.
- David Ngaruri Kenney and Philip G. Schrag, Asylum Denied: A Refugee’s Struggle for Safety in America (book describing the impact of an asylum denial on the life of a refugee who fled from torture and imprisonment in Africa).
Press:
Academics: