A survey by pro-migration groups shows that only one out of every 27 border migrants claimed to meet the core requirement for winning political asylum in the United States.
Just 3.7 percent of 364 deported or stranded migrants said they were fleeing because of “political opinion.”
In contrast, 54 percent said they were motivated by “economy and employment” to seek wages in Americans’ workplaces.
The data undermine routine claims by progressives and journalists that illegal migrants are seeking deserved asylum.
The survey is included within a report that will be touted on March 26 by a group of pro-migration organizations, led by the American Friends Service Committee.
Their report is titled “How Cruel Migration Policies Hurt People,” and it assumes illegal migrants have a legal and moral right to move into Americans’ communities. For example, the report says:
A majority of the people interviewed had planned their life projects to happen in the United States, however, overnight, their hopes, aspirations, jobs, and relationships were disrupted by the implementation of an unjust and cruel policy.
Congress’s immigration laws bar economic migrants, and the asylum exception is granted to migrants fleeing persecution by their home governments.
President Joe Biden’s deputies approved almost 50 percent of asylum requests, while President Donald Trump’s deputies approved less than 5 percent of asylum requests in February 2026.
Very few of the 364 surveyed migrants appear to meet the asylum test, according to published testimony from interviews in El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. The implication is that progressives urged millions of migrants to undergo trauma, risks, and debts, knowing that nearly all of them were job-seeking illegal migrants.
One of the Salvadoran migrants described their trauma on the progressives’ path to the United States:
A Mexican police officer took us across [the border] for 80,000 pesos. He kept us in a house that was supposedly in Arizona, then he demanded more money, and when we couldn’t pay, he assaulted the children. We managed to escape one day when the officer left, but the U.S. police caught us and deported us to Guatemala. Out of fear, we said we were from there so we wouldn’t be deported again. We then returned to El Salvador because of the children, who were left traumatized.
A Venezuelan boy spoke about his trek northwards with his father, who was likely hoping to use the Flores border loophole that was cut open by the ACLU, Judge Dolly Gee, and the Obama administration:
We left [Venezuela] because we wanted to reach the United States, and we got on the train [in Mexico]. Without meaning to, my dad let go of me and I fell really hard onto the tracks. I hurt my rib… Then [police] caught us… we were hiding the bushes and they caught us.
Several thousand migrants died while trying to reach the welcome offered by Biden’s deputies, including his pro-migration border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas.
Many of the migrants who made it across the border then suffered the trauma of deportation.
Some migrants self-deported from the United States as ICE implemented the President’s deportation promise and mandate. A Honduran said:
When I saw in the news that immigration authorities were detaining people inside the courts… I became afraid that they would take my children away and deport me alone, with my wife pregnant… With the letter we were given, we were able to leave the United States.
Many of the migrants were deported after choosing to live illegally in the United States for several years:
57% of interviewees said they had lived in the United States for more than six years, and 34% had lived there for over a decade, with their families, a stable job, and a sense of belonging within their communities. All of this was swept away in the blink of an eye.
Many of the new migrants took out travel loans in the hope of buying their way past the cartels and reaching the welcome dangled by American progressives.
They planned on paying their smuggling debts by taking jobs for little pay. But once lured by progressives onto the dangerous and tough trek — often with children — they were legally sent back south. Now, many are stranded halfway between without much chance of paying off their loans before losing their property to banks.
One Venezuelan migrant in Costa Rica told the survey:
You know, the sadness I carry from not seeing my little daughter [in Venezuela], who is only two years old. My son is four, and he still hasn’t started school because I haven’t had the chance to buy him a pair of shoes. I came here to get ahead, and all I’ve found is misfortune… I could lose my family because of this… (I feel) anger about it, about the journey… and I feel so bad.
The interviews were conducted before Trump replaced Venezuela’s dictator. That military operation may enable trade and investment to rebuild prosperity for the many millions of Venezuelans who did not follow the progressive invitation to the U.S. border.
Similarly, Trump’s pressure on Cuba — and perhaps soon on Nicaragua — will allow its citizens to rebuild their societies via trade and investment, not via migration.
The survey said that deported migrants in El Salvador and other countries are looking for local jobs, not for deportation support from pro-migration American groups:
The most urgent need among participants is to find a job and secure an income that allows them to rebuild their lives and cope with daily challenges. This was the most frequently mentioned need across all three groups identified: 82% of those deported from the United States, 67% of those deported from Mexico, and 53% of those stranded or experiencing reverse migration.
The report is careful to describe one of the migrant women as “non-binary.”
The report describes the migrants’ legal rejection and return home as “forced return.”
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