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The United States ratified the protocol in l968,3 and

the nonrefoulment and asylum obligations were made U.S law

by the Refugee Act of l980.4  That act authorizes the at-

torney general to grant asylum to refugees present in the

United States.  Those who are not present in the United

States, who are, for instance, in a third country or a

refugee camp, can apply for protection through the overseas

refugee program.  Under U.S. refugee law the president, in

consultation with Congress, which controls refugee funding,

sets a ceiling on the number of refugees America will accept

in a given fiscal year.5  The president can increase that

number in an emergency.

Each year, the United States accepts only a small

fraction of the number of refugees and asylum seekers world-

wide.  It is estimated that in 1997 there are 14.5 million

refugees worldwide.6  Under the Clinton administration, the

number of refugee applications approved by the United States

declined 35 percent from 115,330 in fiscal year 1992 to

74,491 in FY96.7  A much smaller number were granted asylum

protection; in FY96, the United States granted asylum to

18,556 people.8

Though the numbers of asylum seekers granted protection

each year are small, the range of beliefs protected is

broad.  Among recent asylum seekers have been Kurds from

Iraq and Turkey who were persecuted because of their nation-

ality; Christians from China and the Middle East who were

prohibited from practicing their religion; Bosnian women

who, endangered by their ethnicity, escaped being raped and

killed by the Serbs; Somalis who fled because their families

were being annihilated by members of rival clans; journal-

ists who escaped persecution for criticizing government

actions; Chinese families who protested forced abortion and

sterilization; and Cubans who protested Castro's dictator-

ship.

Asylum Procedures

Asylum claims are decided in two different procedural

contexts: (1) affirmative applications, whereby the person

takes the initiative and applies for asylum after arriving

in the United States and before the INS begins any proceed-

ings, and (2) defensive applications, whereby the applica-

tion for asylum is made only after the INS has begun pro-

ceedings to remove the person from the United States.