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VERIFY: Have caravan refugees been granted asylum?

We can Verify through and through this post is not true-- and we found out why.
Credit: David McNew/Getty Images
People climb a section of border fence to look into the U.S. as members of a caravan of Central American asylum seekers arrive to a rally on April 29, 2018 in Tijuana, Baja California Norte, Mexico.

QUESTION:

Is a Honduras woman featured in a viral social media post the first person to be granted asylum from the caravan in California?

ANSWER

No.

SOURCES:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, San Diego

U.S. Department of Homeland Security headquarters

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement .

U.S. Department of Justice

Asylum Eligibility- Act 101(a)15P

Establishing Asylum Eligibility

Google Reverse Image

PROCESS:

A viral post is stirring up controversy about the more than 100 Central Americans waiting at the border in California, seeking asylum.

One tweet with thousands of hits on social media claims a woman was the first in the caravan to get asylum "because of starvation and lack of employment."

Credit: Twitter
U.S. Customs and Border Control extended a small bridge on Tuesday morning and allowed small groups from the caravan to cross for processing. Individuals who did not have proper documentation were subject to expedited removal, but if they told a border official they were afraid to go back to their home countries, they were allowed to apply for asylum, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson.The process is anything but swift. Next, the applicant is detained and referred to an asylum officer to determine whether they have a credible fear of persecution or torture. If the officer deems a credible fear exists, then applicants are sent to Immigration Court controlled by the Justice Department. If the court decides to send them back, an applicant can appeal the decision, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson.All of this takes time. "This is a much longer process than just coming in and requesting asylum and being granted it," a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson said. "It's a process that takes some time."An immigrant crossing over Tuesday morning would not have been granted asylum by Thursday morning. Plus, when it comes to seeking asylum, there are only five criteria, which include credible threats against a person for things like religion and race. Starvation and unemployment wouldn't count.To top it all off, WUSA9's Verify team did a Google Reverse Image search on the photo of the woman featured in the post. It appears to have been grabbed from an adult website.We can Verify, this post is false.

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