Not only has Maine’s embrace of asylum seekers given hundreds of immigrants who were persecuted in their own countries a new start here, but it has also done wonders for the state, bringing new people and diversity to a state that very badly needs both.

For Maine, it has been the definition of a win-win. So when the immigration office in Boston, which handles asylum claims for the region, rejects those claims at a far higher rate than do other offices, the public deserves to know why.

In an effort to find out, advocates for asylum seekers are seeking documents from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that should show just what’s happening at the Boston office that is leading to all the denied claims.

USCIS has responded with thousands of pages of records to the plaintiffs – the ACLU, the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project and the Refugee and Human Rights Clinic at the University of Maine School of Law.

But the plaintiffs say that the documents are redacted in key areas, and that some documents critical to understanding how the office works have not been turned over, with the immigration office incorrectly citing public-record exemptions in order to justify withholding the information.

What we do know is concerning enough to warrant a full review of the asylum process at the Boston office.

When a person seeks asylum in the U.S., they start by submitting an application to USCIS. They are then interviewed by an asylum officer, who is tasked with determining whether the asylum seeker has a credible fear of harm if returned to their home country. If so, they are granted asylum; if not, they have to wait to plead their case before an immigration judge.

Nationally in recent years, the average for approving these claims has been around 30 percent. In Boston, however, it has been as low as 8 percent. Advocates noticed the difference, leading to the pursuit of public records starting in 2019.

The public has a right to know why the approval rate is so low. Many of the asylum seekers initially denied will eventually win asylum in front of a judge, which indicates that they have a good case. But the delay costs them – and Maine – valuable time. They cannot work while awaiting asylum, nor can they bring family members here; asylum seekers often have spouses and children still in danger back home.

The process has been further slowed by COVID, which has affected the courts. At the same time, immigrants, many of them who came to the country for asylum, have been performing some of the most dangerous jobs during the pandemic. As a result, immigrant communities have been harder than most by the virus.

Making the process slower only leaves asylum seekers in limbo longer, leaving them uncertain about their future here, and wasting a valuable asset for our communities.

Advocates say some of their clients who have gone through the Boston office have faced questions that seem contrary to law, or that the process seems designed to deny initial claims.

There are records that would help show just what’s going on there to make it so different from other immigration offices. The federal government should release them.

In Boston, it seems, a federal bureaucracy is standing in the way of the appropriate application of law, hurting people and communities in the process. The public should know why.