Asylum law is a general term that applies to any person or group who is victimized in their home country and flees to another country or state to escape. Since the Second World War, one of the most prolific admitters of asylum seekers has been the United States. Since 1980, over two million refugees alone have been admitted to the United States.

As one of ten countries accepting asylum seekers and refugees currently in 2006, they have outdone their fellow countries by accepting double the amount of refuges, more than any other participating country to date.

The United States follows international and federal laws regarding asylum, and fully one tenth of asylum seekers have also been refugees admitted into the US. The United State's practices regarding asylum are set out in a convention from 1951 called the 'Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.' Later in 1980, this convention was broadened when congress passed the 'Refugee act of 1980.'

According to its protocols, a person is defined as a refugee if they have fled to the US because of the fear or enactment of persecution on protected ground in their home country or a home state that didn't or couldn't offer protection.

The laws regarding asylum are enforced by the attorney general and are awarded on the basis of the criteria mentioned above; fear of recrimination for gender or sexual prejudice is included as well. The defendant must establish, however, that they are indeed a victim of persecution in their home country to the satisfaction of the grantor.

Each year, the US sets a 'refugee ceiling' which is the number of refugees they'll permit to immigrate into the US for the duration of that year. The number is subject to the discretion of the government and is usually the focus of anti-immigration groups and pro-refugee lobbyists alike, the former seeking to lower the number and the latter seeking to raise it higher.

There are two different applications potential asylum seekers or refugees must complete; one is the 'Application for Resettlement by Refugees Abroad' and the other is the 'Application for Asylum by Refugees in the United States.'