The number of illegals seeking asylum to gain easy access to the United States has jumped 900 percent in less than 10 years, greatly expanding the immigration population receiving Social Security benefits, school loans, green cards, welfare and other taxpayer funded services, according to figures from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

While about 8,000 mostly Latin Americans in 2009 sought asylum, the number is expected to reach 80,000 or more this year, according to a projection from the Center for Immigration Studies.



The report said 80 percent come from just three countries that have already flooded the border with youths and young families, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Most claim a fear of torture, abuse, or retaliation, fulfilling the U.S. requirement that they must voice some credible fear of returning home.

The surge was sparked by a freeing up by President Obama of the restrictions to those requesting asylum. Now they are let into the United States while they pursue their asylum request.



The author of the report, Jessica M. Vaughan, the Center's director of policy studies, said many of those arriving at the border to claim asylum are trafficked through Mexico by gangs charging fees to get their clients into the U.S.

What's more, typically many are granted a temporary OK, then find their way to U.S. cities. A House panel found that some 90 percent are granted asylum, though only 30 percent of the requests were "fraud free," said the CIS analysis.



New in the latest numbers, she said, was a rise in immigrants from India seeking asylum. They too arrived via gang trafficking.

"The only non-Latin American country to rank in the top five nationalities of asylum seekers reported by USCIS is India. The influx of Indians appears to have heated up in 2013 along the Arizona border, and shows signs of being organized or facilitated by smuggling organizations, with some paying as much as $35,000 to be guided to the Nogales area. In 2015 the number of Indian asylum seekers began to exceed the number arriving from Ecuador, long a source of illegal migration through Mexico," said the report.

The Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. has published a pamphlet that shows all the federal programs those granted asylum get, including green cards, Social Security, school loans, welfare, Medicaid, cash and housing assistance.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com