Joe Biden spent four years turning the word "asylum" into a golden ticket.
Now Trump's judges are shredding 440,000 of them.
And the number that proves Biden's loophole was a scam from day one is something the Washington Post buried in paragraph four.
Biden's Border Chief Built a 3.7 Million Case Backlog on Purpose
Alejandro Mayorkas didn't lose control of the border.
He ran it exactly as intended.
The moment a migrant said the word "asylum," Mayorkas's deputies processed them through, issued a work permit, and sent them into the American economy to pay off their smuggling debt.
It hit 3.7 million pending cases by 2024 – a deliberate pipeline that turned the U.S. asylum system into the world's most expensive loophole.
Here's what that loophole actually bought you.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2103452701979750525?s=20
A survey of 364 border migrants – conducted by pro-migration groups, not conservatives – found that only 1 in 27 even claimed to meet the basic legal requirement for asylum in America.
Just 3.7 percent said they were fleeing because of their political opinion.
Fifty-four percent said they came for jobs.
That's not asylum.
That's Mayorkas handing out work permits to economic migrants and charging American workers the difference in their wages.
Trump Cleared Out the Rubber-Stamp Judges and the Numbers Flipped Overnight
Immigration courts are now denying 94 percent of all asylum claims.
In June 2026 alone, judges decided more than 14,000 cases and approved just 771 of them.
Three years ago, under Biden, that approval rate was above 50 percent.
Trump didn't change the law.
He changed who runs the courtrooms.
https://twitter.com/JBMAGA03/status/2103464232419266864?s=20
Over 270 immigration judges who were rubber-stamping Biden-era claims were fired or resigned during fiscal years 2025 and 2026 – roughly 38 percent of the entire bench.
The DOJ said it plainly when the numbers dropped last month: "The Biden Administration allowed millions of unvetted migrants into our communities."
Trump's replacements are now processing cases at record speed, and the 3.7 million case pile is already shrinking toward 3.1 million – which means fewer months that fraudulent claimants can live and work on American soil while their paperwork sits in queue.
And for every case cleared, ICE gets a deportation order it can execute immediately.
The Washington Post Ran the Story and Still Missed the Point
Stephen Miller wasn't exaggerating in April 2025 when he told reporters the border shutdown had already saved thousands of lives.
“A Washington Post analysis of immigration court records shows immigration judges, who work at the behest of the Justice Department, have ordered more than 440,000 asylum seekers removed during President Donald Trump’s first 19 months back in office — more than during the previous eight years combined,” the Post reported.
The UN's own Missing Migrants Project tracked at least 349 deaths in Caribbean waters in 2023 alone – nearly double the prior year – driven by migrants who wouldn't have made the trip if Mayorkas's welcome mat wasn't sitting at the finish line.
“The U.N. Missing Migrants Project estimates at least 349 people either disappeared or died in Caribbean waters last year, nearly twice as many as the year before,” the Post reported.
https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2103471833249145241?s=20
Biden's open border didn't save migrants.
It gave smugglers a business model and charged Americans for the privilege.
The Washington Post ran Wednesday's analysis on the 440,000 denials and framed the numbers as troubling.
Trump's judges just confirmed what everyone already knew: nine out of every ten Biden-era asylum claims was fraud.
The Washington Post spent years telling you these were refugees.
The courts just spent 19 months proving they were job applicants.
Sources:
- Neil Munro, "Trump Deputies Deny 440,000 Asylum Requests," Breitbart, September 24, 2026.
- "Asylum Denials Rise to 94% Amid the Remaking of the Immigration Court," TRAC Reports, August 31, 2026.
- "Asylum Denial Rate Climbs to 94%, New Report Says," Washington Examiner, September 1, 2026.
- DOJ Statement on TRAC Asylum Findings, Department of Justice, September 2026.