Title 42 is set to end next week. Border crossings are expected to surge even higher than the current records. Key to the illegal-alien invasion: our overly generous “asylum” policies. Illegals travel to our southwest border sure in the knowledge that if they can just cross, they can apply for “asylum.” Illegals the world over can enter with a sob story, whether it’s running from “political violence” or “anti-LGBTQ discrimination.” Thus asylum rules must be changed to solve the border crisis. The best way to tell the world America’s border is closed: an asylum moratorium.
Asylum is intended to give shelter to legitimate cases of individuals who face government persecution in their home countries, e.g., South Vietnamese fleeing the new Communist government after the end of the Vietnam War. But the millions of Latin Americans and Caribbeans coming to the border, with the arguable exception of Venezuelans and Cubans, are not fleeing governments. They claim asylum simply because their countries are just too poor and crime-ridden [Fleeing for their lives in Central America, by Richard Skretteberg, Norwegian Refugee Council]. Of course, this rationale opens America to the entire Third World. Leftists angrily react to any suggestion that these are “sh*thole countries,” as POTUS 45 Trump supposedly called them, yet they will grant asylum to their nationals on the basis that these are, in fact, “sh*thole countries.” Fleeing poverty and unemployment are not valid asylum claims. But that is why illegals are running from Latin America, as they readily confess.
Illegals claim asylum, which requires a credible claim of fear, because it provides a foothold to get into the country. Under President Biden, asylum claims are allowing illegals to leave federal custody and stay here in the U.S. while their applications are processed. Federal law requires illegals who apply for asylum to be detained while they are screened. But Biden (impeachably) is ignoring the law. The Center for Immigration Studies’ Andrew Arthur estimates that a staggering 1.4 million illegals out of the 2.4 million caught at the border in fiscal year 2022 were released into America [Biden lets in millions who have no asylum claim—and they’ll never leave, New York Post, November 3, 2022].
Biden lets in millions who have no asylum claim -- and they'll never leave https://t.co/2iFwppN8MN via @nypost
— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey) November 6, 2022
Donald Trump made it much harder for illegals to claim asylum. He tightened eligibility for asylum, fast-tracked removals, banned illegals who came “between ports of entry” (i.e., crossing illegally) from applying for asylum, and forced the rest to remain in Mexico while applications were processed. Importantly, he even placed work restrictions on them [How Trump is making it harder for asylum seekers, by Peniel Ibe, American Friends Service Committee, November 2, 2020].
Biden spitefully eliminated most of these measures as soon as he entered office. His termination of Remain in Mexico, a move that prompted a fierce legal battle, was one of his most notable changes. While Biden has at times lukewarmly enforced this policy under court order, the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that he could nix it. Now, illegals who claim asylum don’t have to wait in Mexico.
Biden also expanded asylum eligibility to let in alleged victims of “crime” or “domestic violence.” A woman who claims domestic abuse in Guatemala can now apply for asylum. It’s apparently easier to leave your home country than your relationship. Logically, this same standard could apply to America’s own violent cities, such as Baltimore, Detroit, and St. Louis. People there have to deal with gangs, crime, and domestic violence. Would they get asylum in crime-free Iceland? [Biden changes immigration rules to open more pathways for migrants, by Mark Moore, New York Post, June 17, 2021]
Biden also made it easier for illegals to be approved for legal residence. Now, asylum officers, not immigration judges, will settle cases. Treason Lobbyists greeted that dangerous change with wild applause, and said it was one of the most important changes to asylum policy in a quarter-century [Biden Administration Prepares Sweeping Change to Asylum Process, by Eileen Sullivan, New York Times, March 24, 2022]. The measure means leftist Treason Lobby bureaucrats can approve as many claims as they want. CIS’s Arthur estimates they grant asylum at a rate nearly twice that of immigration judges [Asylum Officers Granting Asylum in Border Cases at Almost Twice the Rate of Judges, by Andrew Arthur, Center for Immigration Studies, October 11, 2022].
With border crossings expected to reach as many as 18,000-20,000 per day, Biden may expand asylum even further. He recently created an asylum program for Venezuelans, who now compose a large percentage of border crossers, which would allow them to apply abroad for asylum and fly to the U.S. Even worse, he wants Cuban, Haitians, and Nicaraguans included.
Amusingly, Biden officials claim the program will reduce the flow of illegal aliens to the border—but that’s only because Biden wants to fly them into airports! That’s a bold plan even in the context of Biden’s already aggressive pursuit of the Great Replacement [U.S. Considers Expanding Asylum Program for Venezuelans to Include Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, by Michelle Hackman and Alicia A. Caldwell, Wall Street Journal, December 13, 2022].
The U.S. plans to expand an asylum program for Venezuelan migrants to also include Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans https://t.co/NX56IdQ5tF
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) December 13, 2022
If the invasion is ever to be stopped, all these new rules must be scrapped, and asylum policies and procedures must be changed across the board.
Republicans have two options to challenge Biden:
The GOP could easily draft legislation to restore Remain in Mexico, tighten eligibility rules for asylum, and put the process back in the exclusive purview of immigration judges. Democrats wouldn’t support such changes, but that would damage their image among voters. Democrats would be exposed for caring more about bringing in illegals than securing the border.
Announce to the world that America will not grant asylum until its border crisis is resolved.
This would instantly reduce illegal migration. (The coyotes are rational.) It would also allow America to deport hundreds of thousands of phony asylum seekers in our country right now.
An asylum moratorium is necessary to restore our borders and sovereignty. Too many illegals exploit our charitable rules. Too many illegals have gained a foothold here through this generosity. Too many illegals allowed in will forever change the fabric of America. Halting asylum applications for the duration of the border crisis would do wonders.
Of course, a moratorium is a near political impossibility, not least because the Treason Lobby would immediately launch full-scale lawfare against it. But some Republican—Representative Lauren Boebert or Marjorie Taylor Greene perhaps—could at least introduce the idea through legislation to get people discussing it.
As the sainted Bobby Kennedy is supposed to have said (but didn’t really) :
Some men see things as they are, and say why. I dream of things that never were, and say why not.
Treason Lobbyists will argue that an asylum moratorium will hurt America diplomatically.
Bunk. Most applications don’t come from hostile countries such as China and North Korea. The vast majority are from allied Latin American countries. It’s implicitly insulting to these countries to say they’re so awful that conditions there make their citizens eligible for asylum here. That openly accepts what Trump called them: “sh*tholes.”
Socialist Venezuela and communist Cuba are possible exceptions, but even our Open-Door policy to Cuban illegals was a disaster for Miami, FL. After the Mariel boatlift, which dumped 130,000 Cubans into the city, its murder rate doubled.
The Cold War is over. America no longer must prove itself morally superior to the Soviet Union. We are not going to alienate allies or hurt our world standing through an asylum moratorium. This move will simply announce that America’s borders are no longer open—and that our own citizens come first.
Washington Watcher II [Email him] is an anonymous DC insider.
