Democrats Jump Aboard the Trump Train on the Border Crisis—President Tightens Asylum Requirements

This week nine bi-partisan senators have joined together to take action on the border crisis. Senators, Krysten Sinema (D-AZ), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Rob Portman (R - OH), Joe Machin (D-WV), James Lankford (R-OK), Doug Jones (D-AL), Michael Enzo (R-WY), John Barrasso (R-WY), and John Cornyn (R-TX) have become the driving force to implement a pilot program nicknamed “Operation Safe Run”. The pilot program, run by the Department of Homeland Security, is meant to rapidly reduce the time it takes to identify those who are seeking asylum as well as decrease deportation times.

The program would give DHS the authority to remove migrant families within 15 days who have been determined not to have met the “credible fear” criteria when seeking asylum. Those migrants with valid “credible fear” of returning to their homes often have asylum cases which lasts for years, but the proposed operation is expected to significantly reduce that time.

According to the program, Border Patrol agents will conduct interviews with migrants within 3 days of coming into contact with officials in order to determine if they express fear. A medical exam will be administered within four days and “credible fear“ interviews within nine. During that time the Department of Justice will discuss and make a determination in regards to each case. If the claim is determined to be valid, the families will be released under alternative-to-detention programs and given the chance to claim asylum.

Unfortunately, the progress to implement this program is slow going. Being that it is, the nine senators began aggressively pursuing the matter by writing a letter to President Trump, Vice President Pence, Attorney General William Barr and Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan.

The letter stated,

“We have worked with your agencies to develop a streamlined process to rapidly, accurately, and fairly determine those family units that do not have a valid legal claim and safely return those individuals to their home countries."

The letter went on to say,

"The process would use existing authorities, but surge necessary resources to a limited, particular location on the southern border.”

In a statement Johnson stated,

“As sympathetic as I am toward anyone who yearns for the freedom and opportunity that America provides, it is not possible to properly accommodate all who do. Those who enter our country illegally without a valid asylum claim, put themselves and our society any(sic) risk.”

“The goal of our policies should be to reduce the overwhelming flow of illegal migration and convert it to a controllable number of legal immigrants. Hopefully, Operation Safe Return will convince Central Americans, that on a bipartisan basis, America will do everything we can to prevent human traffickers from exploiting our laws and abusing immigrants seeking a better life.”

While Democrats are focusing on the humanitarian side of the ever growing crisis as well as trashing the ICE detention facility conditions, the Trump administration has other plans in mind. This week the President announced and published a policy in the Federal Register that would require most immigrants to seek asylum in the countries they travel through, for example Mexico or countries in Central America. In most cases, if they are denied asylum in those countries, only then can they seek asylum in the U.S.

Acting Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, Kevin McAleenan in regards to the policy said it,

“will reduce the overwhelming burdens on our domestic system caused by asylum-seekers failing to seek urgent protection in the first available country, economic migrants lacking a legitimate fear of persecution and the transnational criminal organizations, traffickers, and smugglers exploiting our system for profit.”  

He went on to describe the “targeted changes” as critical.

Attorney General William P. Barr issued a statement saying,

“This rule is a lawful exercise of authority provided by Congress to restrict eligibility for asylum. The United States is a generous country but is being completely overwhelmed by the burden associated with apprehending a processing hundreds of thousands of aliens along the southern border. This rule will decrease forum shopping by economic migrants and those who seek to exploit our asylum system to obtain entry to the United States—while ensuing that no one is removed from the United States who is more likely than not to tortured or persecuted on account of a protected ground.”

The are three exceptions to this rule, however.

1.) An alien who demonstrates that he or she applied for protection from persecution or torture in at least one of the countries through which the alien transited en route to the United States, and the alien received a final judgement denying the alien protection in such country

2.) An alien who demonstrates that he or she satisfies the definition of “victim of a severe form of trafficking in persons” provided in C.F.R. §  214.11

3.) An alien who has transited en route to the United States through only a country or countries that were not parties to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, the 1967 Protocol, or the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, since October of 2018 agents have apprehended 63,624 unaccompanied children, 390,308 family units and 234,443 single adults. So within the last eight months border patrol has detained over 600,000 immigrants. We have seen a drastic increase in the apprehension of migrants crossing the border. Last month alone 94, 897 were detained and May saw 132,880 migrant border crossers.

According to the DOJ only a small group of these immigrants are ultimately granted asylum and we are also seeing a much larger increase in cases referred to them for proceedings before an immigration judge.

Some are focusing on removing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and protesting migrant detention facilities or simply pointing out the problem, but it does not negate the fact that there is definitely an issue at the border.

Operation Safe Return and the President’s new policy may very well fail. But you know what Thomas Edison said? He only needed to find one way to make a light bulb? The only way to fix it is to dive right in because it looks like the Trump Administration looking to take the jump.


Sources:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-and-department-homeland-security-issue-third-country-asylum-rule

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw-border-migration

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-administration-announces-major-crackdown-on-asylum-seekers

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sinema-program-remove-migrants-asylum

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/immigration/2019/07/18/sen-kyrsten-sinema-program-removal-migrant-families-border-asylum-seekers/1770073001/

Author: 777 Media Source