The number of applications for asylum in February 2003 decreased 24 percent compared to the number filed in February 2002. The pending caseload was 7 percent lower than in the same month last year.

IJ - Immigration Judges at the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).

 

• Nationals of Indonesia submitted the most asylum applications in February 2003, followed by China and Mexico.

   

 

• Slightly more than 86 percent of the pending caseload involves aliens whose cases may be adjudicated under one of the provisions of the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act of 1997 (NACARA) or the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1998 (HRIFA) rather than through an asylum process. The pending caseload excluding those special-group cases is approximately 42,000 cases.