A fortified border wall is a powerful
deterrent to illegal migration. Probably more powerful is the lure of a porous,
loophole-riddled immigration system that attracts aliens who know they can live
and work in America for months or years until a backlogged court system finally
hears their cases. The wall is being built, despite
aggressive opposition. Now the immigration system is getting a much
needed overhaul.
While the nation's capital has become consumed by the news of a
potential impeachment process, scant attention has been paid to a seismic
realignment of immigration policy.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) acting director Kevin
McAleenan recently announced initiatives
designed to effectively end "catch and release" for Central American
families arriving at the border. According to the new DHS policy,
the agency will no longer be releasing family units from Border Patrol stations
into the interior of the country, with some exceptions for humanitarian and
medical reasons.
The importance of this change cannot be overstated. In
place of what has become de facto policy of allowing entry
to virtually all claimants, family units will be quickly returned to their
country of origin if they do not claim a credible fear of persecution by their
governments. If they do claim fear of return, as most are likely to
do, they will be returned to Mexico as their case proceeds under a new agreement
with our neighbor to the south as part of the Migrant
Protection Protocols that DHS implemented in January.
With the same certainty as death and taxes, anti-borders groups
will be quick to attack the new policy as mean-spirited, possibly illegal and
not representative of "who we are." When viewed through a
nonpartisan, apolitical perspective, the policy brings fairness and common
sense to an immigration policy that for too long has been in short supply of
both.
With much of the American public oblivious to it, asylum has
become the back door into the United States for aliens who in many cases have
no right to claim it. After the Obama administration expanded
grounds for asylum by domestic violence and gang crime as forms of persecution,
the number of credible fear claims by aliens rose by 2,000
percent. Today, immigration courts are drowning in hundreds of
thousands of cases waiting to be heard.
The Trump era has represented a historic pushback on the creeping
definition of asylum. Attorney General Barr in July clarified
the meaning of "social groups" in asylum
law. This is an important distinction because, until recently, even
nuclear families have been interpreted as particular social
groups. That meant that almost everyone whose family members have
been crime victims in certain countries may be eligible for asylum in the U.S.
Despite this important clarification, the damage in terms of
misrepresenting the issue to the public has been done. Thanks in no
small part to relentless agenda-driven media coverage, the perception has been
created that anyone who has experienced any form of hardship in his home
country should be eligible for asylum. This was never the intent or
purpose of asylum law.
The fact is that many who file for asylum status — and later have
their claims rejected — do so to pursue better economic opportunities in the
U.S. No one can blame people for seeking this, but it is not and
should not be the criterion for asylum. The policy exists to give
people refuge when the government of their country makes life dangerous for
them because of who they are. To water down the definitions of
asylum and allow applicants with pending cases to remain in the country only
serves to clog the system and put more strain on our already overburdened
immigration infrastructure.
Critics will bemoan the sea change that should come from the new
DHS policy, but it is long overdue. An immigration policy that benefits those seeking entry to
the detriment of the host country is not sustainable. A
sensible asylum policy is the only way to remain a welcoming refuge for those
most in need.
Dale L. Wilcox is executive director and
general counsel at the Immigration Reform Law Institute,
a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the
American people from the negative effects of illegal migration.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/10/trumps_new_asylum_policy_a_gamechanger_on_immigration.html
