'Living in bad neighborhood or being poor

are NOT reasons to be granted asylum

But those are 2 main talking points of why there’s border crisis

The number of people in a single caravan is almost as much as the US typically grants asylum for an entire year

US immigration lawyers are cashing in the most

https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientbills.php?id=D000046954&year=2018

There's a time limit: you must file all the necessary documentation within one year of entrance to the United States or of the expiration of your permitted U.S. stay.

People granted asylum receive the to right to live in the U.S. for as long as they qualify as asylees. They also may apply for a work permit. After a year of approval, asylees can apply for a U.S. green card.

The threat against you needs to be a nationwide—you won’t be thought to have a well-founded fear of persecution if you could avoid the problem simply by moving to another part of the country

Also, the

fact that you are suffering economically is not by itself

, considered a reason for granting refugee or asylee status. Nor is it enough if someone has a grudge against you, or has committed crimes against you for random or personal reasons.

If you have not actually suffered persecution in the past, you can still qualify for political asylum or refugee status if you have a genuine fear of future persecution in your home country or last country of residence.

If you suffered severe persecution in the past, you are presumed to face future persecution as well. But the U.S. government may try to argue that your country is now considered safe to return to.

If that happens, you may still be able to successfully apply for asylum in the United States. Something called “humanitarian asylum” allows you to receive asylum if you can demonstrate “compelling reasons for being unwilling or unable to return to the country arising out of the severity of the past persecution” or “there is a reasonable possibility that [you] may suffer other serious harm upon removal to that country.” (See 8 C.F.R. § 208.13(b)(iii)(A).) For example, if everything you owned was destroyed, or you would face severe emotional trauma upon returning, or you would remain a social outcast even if you didn’t face persecution, you might qualify for humanitarian asylum.

https://www.alllaw.com/resources/immigration-law/asylum

The number of ‘’’asylees tends to run about 20,000 per year’’’. To get the latest figures on how many people have been awarded asylum as well as refugee status in given years, go to the Department of Homeland Security's website, which includes a page on Immigration Statistics. Look for the latest "Refugees and Asylees" report.

https://www.dhs.gov/immigration-statistics/refugees-asylees

“We proposed resettling up to 30,000 refugees under the new refugee ceiling as well as processing more than ‘’’280,000 asylum seekers’’’ Pompeo said in an announcement at the State Department, calling the United States “the most generous nation in the world when it comes to protection-based immigration.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-pompeo-idUSKCN1LX2HS