Book Review: Lives in the balance: Asylum adjudication by the Department of Homeland Security

Abstract

and Houston, TX). The underlying purpose of the study was to examine the process of asylum adjudication and the effect that different variables (of both the applicants and officers) have on grant rates (p. 3).Lives in the Balance illustrates the crucial role of asylum adjudication officers in this process. With each asylum application, officers confront potentially life or death consequences for genuine refugees seeking asylum in the United States. Therefore, asylum adjudication officers, should, according to the authors, possess more professional credentials than are presently required.The book consists of 11 in-depth chapters that encapsulate the 14-year study. The authors utilized a multifaceted approach by collecting data from a variety of sources: the DHS database ''Refugee, Asylum, and Parole System'' (RAPS); DHS 2011 Survey of adjudication officers; and interviews with asylum adjudication officers. The authors examined many dynamics involved in the adjudication process including legal criteria of meritorious versus nonmeritorious claims; the 1-year filing