What is required to gain asylum in the U.S.?
Asylum laws protect those fleeing to the United States to escape political, religious, or social persecution. The one seeking asylum must demonstrate a “well-founded fear of persecution” stemming from their political beliefs, their race, their religion, their nationality, or their membership in some unpopular group. Whether the fear will be deemed to be well-founded will depend, at least in part, upon which way the political winds are blowing in the U.S. at that moment. Someone escaping from a country whose troubles have gained wide media attention, for example, will generally have a better chance than someone escaping from a lower-profile country.
