# Breitbart: Asylum Approvals Have Fallen to About 5%, One-Tenth of the Biden-Era Rate, Citing TRAC Data

Migrants without lawyers win just over 1% of the time, down from 20%. The backlog is 2.3 million cases. Pro-immigrant groups call the changes an attack on due process. The 5% figure is Breitbart's reading of TRAC data.

- Section: [Border & Security](https://rightnewsrightnow.com/border-security/)
- Published: 2026-10-27
- By: RightNewsRightNow Staff
- Canonical page: https://rightnewsrightnow.com/articles/justice-department-asylum-approval-rate-below-5-percent-trac-immigration-judges-breitbart/

Breitbart reports that the success rate for asylum claims has dropped to about 5%, roughly a tenth of what it was under President Biden.

The numbers. Citing data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), Breitbart says migrants without lawyers now win just above 1% of the time, down from 20% under Biden. The backlog of asylum cases is down to 2.3 million. The Justice Department's roughly 700 immigration judges took in about 514,000 cases since October 2025 and processed almost one million, including nearly 100,000 in August. TRAC puts that at about five times the roughly 200,000 cases a year processed before 2021.

How it happened. Breitbart credits the replacement of about 300 judges and a run of Board of Immigration Appeals rulings. Among those it lists: claims from free democratic countries should be denied; judges may deny obviously frivolous claims on their own motion; and migrants who use Advance Parole to travel to the country they say they fear have abandoned their claims. The Immigration Accountability Project, which backs the changes, says the rulings move the system from "endless bites at the procedural apple" to early dismissal of frivolous claims, and argues cartels have sold asylum as a way to stay in the U.S. indefinitely.

The other side. Breitbart says mainstream outlets focus on individual stories, such as a Washington Post profile of an asylum judge who opposed the changes and a 60 Minutes report on a deported man. Pro-immigrant groups see the changes differently: HIAS says the administration is weakening the immigration court system and threatening due process, and NBC Bay Area and Prism Reports have reported similar concerns.

Note for readers: this is an advocacy-leaning piece, and its claim that rents have stopped rising and wages are nudging up because of the asylum changes is not supported by data in the article. We have not checked the TRAC figures ourselves.

## Source

Original reporting: [Breitbart](https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/10/26/justice-department-drops-asylum-approval-below-5-percent/)