GOP congressman Michael Cloud claims without proof that 80% to 90% of asylum claims aren't legit

[Eugene]

Source: ThinkProgress

GOP congressman claims without proof that 80% to 90% of asylum claims aren’t legit

Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) suggested that asylum cases should therefore receive only a 30-minute evaluation.

JOSH ISRAEL
JUL 10, 2019, 9:28 AM

Texas Rep. Michael Cloud (R) falsely stated that few asylum seekers have legitimate claims of political persecution, and that their cases should therefore merit only a very brief evaluation lasting 30 minutes to two hours maximum.

The House Freedom Caucus member combined debunked statistics and a misunderstanding of what makes people eligible for asylum in a Fox News interview on Wednesday morning.

“Eighty percent, 90% are not true asylum cases,” Cloud claimed. “The whole point of asylum is fleeing political persecution. We have compassion for those people looking for a better life. [But] that is not what asylum laws are for.”

The 80% number appears to be a reference to a debunked argument by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Based on 2017 immigration court statistics that showed 20.22% of asylum claims were approved that year, Sessions deduced that this meant about 80% were without “merit.”

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Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/gop-congressman-republican-michael-cloud-texas-false-claim-80-90-percent-asylum-claims-arent-legit-432ea9af228c/

[walkingman]

1. Cloud is my Congressman and there is literally nothing we can do about it. This is the same

district that corrupt Blake Farenthold had and was one of the districts (TX-Dist 27) that was ruled to have been racially gerrymandered but SCOTUS overruled it in Abbott vs Perez. They went into 4-5 rural counties and included mostly mostly shitkickers (which think GOP is the next thing to Jesus Christ) and now there is very little we can do. Our vote literally does not count. We were historically BLUE until 2011 and now it is not even close. What can you do? Not a damn thing except keep trying!