The defensive asylum process is for individuals who are already in removal proceedings before an immigration court. This process acts as a defense against deportation.
Asylum in the US offers protection from persecution from your home countries. There are 2 distinct processes: affirmative vs defensive asylum.
www.jeelani-law.com
A defensive asylum case begins when you’re already in removal proceedings, meaning the government has issued a Notice to Appear (Form I-862) charging you as removable and filed it with the immigration court.<a href="javascript%3Avoid(0)">3</a> You might end up here because immigration authorities apprehended you at the border or inside the country, because you overstayed a visa and were placed in proceedings, or because USCIS didn’t grant your affirmative application and referred your case to the court.
Affirmative and defensive asylum follow different paths through the U.S. system — here’s what that means for your case and your future.
legalclarity.org
www.uscisguide.com
Abrego Garcia had already exhausted his immigration hearings and was given a final order of deportation. Only then, after being found deportable, but not yet deported, did he and his lawyers file for asylum. This is known as "Defensive asylum" and is generally used to drag out the deportation process.
That is. Garcia was, and is, gaming the system to stay in the US when he should have been deported years ago. That some asshole rogue judges have sided with him is reprehensible.