September 11, 2019
Scoring a victory for President Trump and the rule of law, the Supreme Court has authorized his administration to begin enforcing their new asylum restrictions. As announced Wednesday evening the justices are allowing the new rules to go into effect while legal challenges proceed.
This past July the Trump administration first attempted to enforce new asylum rules. However, shortly after the restrictions were announced, an Obama appointed Judge in San Francisco, Jon Tigar, blocked the implementation. The Supreme Court has effectively overruled Judge Tigar’s injunction.
Under the new policy, asylum seekers must first apply and be denied asylum in the first country in which they travel through, before they are allowed to make an asylum request in the United States. Therefore migrants from Honduras and El Salvador must seek and be denied asylum in Guatemala or Mexico before applying in the U.S. Those originating from Guatemala, must first seek refuge in Mexico and be denied. Exceptions will be made for victims of “severe” human trafficking. The new asylum process is expected to greatly curb the influx of migrants from Central America.
It’s indisputable that our asylum laws have incentivized migrants to make the long and dangerous trek to the United States. Prior to this new policy, any migrant from a noncontiguous country who stepped foot on American soil and used the magic words -a “credible fear” of returning to their home country, were allowed entry into the U.S., to await an asylum hearing. There is currently a backlog of approximately 900,000 migrants living in the U.S waiting for their hearing.
Our immigration system is so overwhelmed that it can take up to three years from entry into the U.S., for an asylum seeker to be granted a hearing. Consequently, many never show for their hearing, joining the millions of illegal immigrants living in the proverbial shadows. Further, approximately 90% of the migrants who do show for their hearing are found to not have a legitimate claim.
Clearly, migrants from Central America are aware of the loopholes in our immigration laws and have learned how to exploit them. To date this fiscal year, there have been almost 600,000 apprehensions at our Southern border. The vast majority are from the Central American Northern Triangle countries- Gautamala, Honduras, and El Salvador. In some months, more than 100,000 migrants illegally crossed over the border, overwhelming our system and causing a humanitarian crisis.
Unfortunately, Democrats in Congress chose to use the chaos at the border as a political weapon against the president, rather than work with him to fix the laws. The Democrat party has moved so far left in the last few years, that many prominent members, including most of the Democratic presidential candidates, are against any restrictions on immigration, essentially favoring an open border agenda.
When Trump ran for president he campaigned on border security and building a wall. He is poised to fulfill both promises . Just this past week the Trump administration secured $3.6 billion to begin construction on a wall along the U.S. -Mexico border.
In spite of universal resistance by Democratic lawmakers to almost all of Trump’s agenda, he is keeping his promises.
