Overwhelmed southern border now wrecking the legal immigration process
Democrats and even some dim Republicans can say there’s no emergency on the southern border, but that doesn’t lessen the unending flow of migrants showing up and straining our resources. You can’t have an unabated stream of people coming in from Latin America claiming asylum, i.e. legal protection for indefinite stay in the U.S., and at the same time administer all the people who want to come in the proper way.
It’s impossible, and a New York Times report on Tuesday detailed how the Trump administration is drowning in the reality ignored by Congress.
The paper said that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Lee Cissna told staff this week that operations abroad would close down so that resources could be directed “to handle the lengthy backlog in asylum applications from tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border every month.”
This means foreigners wanting to come to the U.S., Americans who want to move family from abroad, and otherwise legitimate asylum claims will no longer be processed in a timely, orderly way, if they are at all.
Immigration Services has been sounding the alarm on the overwhelming number of asylum cases since at least January 2018. The agency said then that it was instituting a policy to deal with the newest asylum cases first and work backward to older ones, a “last in, first out” approach meant to quickly deport illegal immigrants hoping to remain in the country at length.
That, of course, is to the detriment of asylum seekers who were here first and who may actually face persecution in their home countries. Those cases were pushed behind new ones of migrants who merely floated across the Rio Grande, hit the Texas bank, and found a border patrol agent to tell, “Asilo por favor!”
Back then, the agency said the backlog of asylum cases was more than 300,000. The backlog has more than doubled since then, due to our abhorrent open-border policy that allows anyone who sets foot on American soil to claim asylum — it’s very easy — guaranteeing them the right to stay here, at least until their court date, and up to 40 percent of asylum seekers don’t even turn up for those.
Democrats have opposed President Trump at every turn in addressing the southern border crisis. Even some Republicans have joined them. They will inevitably complain about the redirecting of resources to deal with the asylum backlog, too.
Members of Congress largely don’t have to deal with the ramifications of our immigration system, which the way it’s written says anyone who wants in and can set foot on land gets to stay. The violent MS-13 gang isn’t terrorizing their children’s schools. Their neighborhoods aren’t morphing into silos of completely foreign cultures.
OK, fine, I guess. But laws of supply and demand still apply, and right now, there is not enough supply to meet the demand at the southern border.
Something has to give. Unfortunately for any American wanting to adopt a foreign baby or any military service member wanting to bring their new spouse home from abroad, it might be them.