Legal bordering of asylum through liminality

Abstract

Unlike the permanent and legitimizing protections of asylum more widely available to other nationalities, current US immigration law and legal mechanisms maintain large numbers of Central American asylum seekers in a perpetual state of legal limbo and precarity. Those able to argue their case in immigration court are most often denied asylum but increasing numbers are allowed to stay in the US in a legally liminal status. The resulting legal limbo for these would-be asylees subjects them to a permanent state of legal violence in the US’ racialized immigration climate. Analysis of US immigration court outcomes from 1997 to 2022 traces the historical denial of asylum to Salvadoran, Guatemalan, and Honduran nationals. A recent administrative tactic to address the historic immigration court backlog of asylum cases, dismissal of cases, are the latest in a historic pattern of granting Central American asylum-seekers temporary status with no pathway to permanent legal status. We argue that the rapid rise in immigration court dismissals is the latest means of denying asylum and casting Central American asylum seekers into a prolonged state of legal ambiguity in the US. While allowing refugee-migrants who are fleeing violence to remain in the US, these same individuals are excluded from legal protections and are exposed to the racialized violence of living as a criminalized underclass in US society.