In the first half of January, several influential pro-immigration organizations sent President Barack Obama an open letter requesting a revision to the procedure for granting political asylum to foreign nationals. According to immigration activists, tens of thousands of applicants receive residence permits fraudulently, by telling fictional stories of harassment and discrimination in their home countries. Meanwhile, immigration authorities often refuse to issue green cards to deserving refugees and make the decision to deport them.

"Obtaining political asylum – it is another lottery," said Professor John Mancuso of the University of Wisconsin. "Winning depends on three factors: the availability of an experienced lawyer, a lot of money and a mastery of acting."

Unfortunately, the process of obtaining refugee status is more often reminiscent of the process of staging a Broadway show. First, the applicant and his counsel come up with a compelling story with disturbing criminal scenes. They rehearse it, perfecting the finest details, and then arrange the premiere showing before the audience and critics (immigration officers).

Immigration psychologist Andy Krill, who conducts interviews with refugees, does not hide the fact that approximately 90 percent of the applicants are merely masterful liars. "Unfortunately, the law prohibits the use of lie detectors during our interviews with refugees. If it were allowed, the number of refugees would experience a sharp decline and their lawyers would lose hundreds of millions of dollars."

Since refugees are not required to pass a lie detector test, they are able to invent whatever they like. Stories recently told at such interviews are comparable to Hollywood blockbusters with their convoluted and fantastical elements. Foreigners flee from bandits and law enforcement, become victims of government conspiracies and secret organizations. People cut off their hands and feet or leave ugly scars on their bodies in order to scare and evoke pity in immigration officers.

"When refugees don't have money, they are willing to pay with their health for the opportunity to live in the United States," continues Professor Mancuso, "I knew several Africans who deliberately cut off their own legs. For them, this was the price of American citizenship."

The market for forged documents, which brings in billions of dollars for the swindlers, supplies the necessary paperwork for a refugee to present and convince immigration authorities. For example, evidence of speaking out at an anti-government rally in one's home country goes for approximately $1,500. Information and photographs concerning time spent imprisoned and injuries due to severe beatings go for a few hundred.

A Brazilian national currently a resident of Virginia, Roberto Dines (last name changed) acknowledged that obtaining a residence permit cost him around $77,000. "I just wanted me and my family to move to America. The only viable method for accomplishing this was to get political asylum. I had no other option but to pretend to be a refugee. I sold my house in my home country and set off."

There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people like Dines in the United States. People decide to lie for the sake of receiving a blue passport. An immigrant from China, Jason Lee, publically referred to the system to obtain political asylum as hopeless. "For the sake of experiment," Lee obtained American documents by pretending to be a religious figure: "The test for getting political asylum is very difficult, but possible to pass on the grounds that no one is deprived of an imagination. The main thing is that your answers seem plausible and logical."

Lee specifically mentioned the fact that immigration officers attach a great deal of importance to the appearance and charisma of refugees. "If the officers like a person, he or she will receive documents, even if the case is sewn with white thread. Chances of success increase several times over if you are a pretty girl."

In fact, immigration authorities have been repeatedly accused of providing single women with documents with excessive frequency. Such refugees, at times by means of tears and emotions, are granted asylum. There is a theory that it is substantially easier for young female refugees from Eastern Europe to obtain a residence permit than for mutilated Africans affected by "revolutionary wars."

"Ultimately, getting asylum depends on only one factor – how the judge overseeing your case is feeling," says lawyer Glenn Taylor. "If the judge has eaten a good dinner and is pleased with life, then the case will be approved. But if on the eve of your trial he had an argument with his wife and is suffering from a migraine, then your stay in the United States will soon be interrupted."

The biggest paradox is that tens of thousands of deserving refugees are unable to receive asylum though they have every right to it. Thus, Joe Ball, a 30-year-old Haitian who lost all his relatives over the course of a coup, committed suicide when officials ruled that he was to be deported. In his suicide note, he cursed the judge who treated his case with indifference. "Better to die now than to wait for the authorities in my native country to deal with me," wrote Ball.

Such cases are far from uncommon. The ruthless immigration machine often deports those who await nothing but ruin in their native countries. Nigerian Deho Curl was killed by rebels several days after returning to his native country. Americans deemed his refugee history, tied to his radical political views, implausible.

Leroy Franesko, a Mexican national, was shot dead with his wife after they returned to Mexico, after the denial of political asylum. Franesko tried to convince the judge that he would be shot by the drug mafia were he to return to his native country. The judge briefly replied, "Ask the Mexican police for help, not the United States authorities."

Another Mexico national, Diego Rojas, immediately filed lawsuits with two government organizations – the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).  According to Rojas, officials accept decisions to grant political asylum without any investigation: "If they wanted to, they could check the authenticity of stories told by refugees in a week, but the process stretches on for years and the officers do not conduct any additional investigation. My story was deemed fictional, despite the fact that it has been featured in several Mexican newspapers."

Rojas is right. Despite possessing truly limitless resources, immigration officials hardly make use of them. Many refugees' backgrounds go unchecked.

"In 2009, thousands of political prisoners received residence permits," Professor John Mancuso reminds us. "They claimed that they had been in prison, that they were tortured and subjected to cruel punishments. Officers believed their stories and neglected to find online social sites where some refugees were registered, which revealed photographs of their happy lives in their native countries."

Although four out of five political asylum cases result in deportation – for many years, denials have remained between 78 percent to 80 percent – there is no quota for visas for political refugees in the United States. "Though it is not written into the professional instructions for judges, every master of the law knows to approve only every fifth case," warns Mancuso. "Consequently, if the day began with two approvals, then, most likely, eight denials will follow."

Obtaining political asylum in the United States has become a farce comparable to the immigration marriage interview. No one is qualified to predict the outcomes of these unpleasant processes. Foreigners and undocumented immigrants, however, must endure them since they provide a venue to stay in the country legally.