Thread: 'It’s not turning people away, it’s asking them to wait': Border Patrol preps for arr

'It’s not turning people away, it’s asking them to wait': Border Patrol preps for arrival of migrant caravan

Alan Gomez, USA TODAYPublished 9:55 a.m. ET Oct. 27, 2018 | Updated 10:39 a.m. ET Oct. 27, 2018

Thousands of migrants camp overnight in southern Mexico as they make their way towards the U.S. border. USA TODAY




(Photo: Alan Gomez, USA Today)
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – With 2,100 National Guardsmen already fanned out along the southern border, and another 1,000 troops on the way, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to ensure that members of the migrant caravan headed north through Mexico do not illegally enter the United States.


But after touring the largest port of entry along that southern border on Friday, the head of Customs and Border Protection conceded that his officers don't have a way to speed up their ability to process caravan members trying to enter the country legally by requesting asylum.


While visiting the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the main crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said his agency views the looming arrival of the migrant caravan as a "law enforcement situation."


He said his Border Patrol agents and members of the military will be ready to rapidly deploy anywhere along the nearly 2,000-mile border to ensure that the caravan does not force its way across the border, as it did when it crossed from Guatemala into Mexico.


"We're not going to allow a large group to push into the United States unlawfully," McAleenan said. "We can't have it. It's not safe for anybody involved."


But the last migrant caravan that reached the United States earlier this year showed that most participants took the legal route by applying for asylum. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 122 caravan members were caught illegally crossing the border, but 401 requested asylum, with 93 percent passing their initial screening.


Still, McAleenan said his hands are tied when asked how his officers can process more caravan members who present themselves at ports of entry, as the Department of Homeland Security has urged them to do.


"It’s not turning people away, it’s asking them to wait," he said.

McAleenan's tour of the border comes as the Trump administration searches for a way to dissuade, or halt, the migrant caravan that has been estimated at up to 10,000 people.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said during her own tour of the California border on Friday that "everything is on the table," which includes a proposal to halt all asylum requests along the southern border. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, under pressure from President Donald Trump, announced that caravan members who stay in the southern portion of his country would be given temporary work permits and access to public health benefits, education and shelters.



None of that has stopped the majority of caravan members, who continue their slow trek north. U.S. officials are updating their mass migration response plans throughout the border since it remains unclear where, or when, the group will arrive.


McAleenan, who oversees Customs officers who man the nation's ports of entry and Border Patrol agents who monitor the vast stretches in between, said the ideal place would be the San Ysidro port. Officials there finalized a multi-year, $750 million upgrade in August that vastly expanded the number of lanes available for cargo trucks, buses, personal vehicles and pedestrians. About 100,000 people cross through the port each day.


Despite improvements, the facility can only process about 100 asylum seekers each day, housing them in a series of holding cells built into the basement of the facility. McAleenan said they are often stuck there until space opens up in detention facilities run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for adult, and the Department of Health and Human Services for minors.

n heads towards the United States

Homeland Security was able to quickly build temporary facilities to house family units as more and more of them reached the border in recent years. That included converting a former Walmart into a shelter for minors in Brownsville and erecting a tent city in the desert outside El Paso.


But McAleenan said no such plans are being considered to ramp up asylum applications. That will leave untold numbers of asylum-seekers in Mexico, where the government and non-governmental organizations have established shelters and waiting lists for people trying to enter the United States.


The commissioner said that reflects the changing nature of migration to the United States, which has shifted too fast for the U.S. government to catch up. People crossing the southern border have gone from mostly single, Mexican men looking for work in the United States to the Central American minors and family units that make up the bulk of border crossings today.


McAleenan said the only long-term solution is for Congress to allocate more money and overhaul the nation's immigration laws to adjust to the new face of immigration.


"The system is beyond capacity," he said. "We need different and more resources to manage what we’re seeing."


As a migrant caravan moves north through Mexico, others seeking asylum in the U.S. are already camped along the border waiting for their chance to make it across. Asylum seekers wait for weeks just to submit claims to U.S. officials. (Oct 25) AP

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/10/27/border-patrol-prepares-arrival-migrant-caravan-asylum/1777697002/

Originally Posted by stoptheinvaders

Still, McAleenan said his hands are tied when asked how his officers can process more caravan members who present themselves at ports of entry, as the Department of Homeland Security has urged them to do.


"It’s not turning people away, it’s asking them to wait," he said.

Apparently he has not received the message they will be Stopped!

They can "wait" in their country.

They must get PRIOR approval before coming here.

Give them a Docket Number...send them HOME.

Investigate their claims on their soil, vet them and give them thorough medical exams in their country!

Asylum is NOT taking in 1/3 of a foreign country showing up at our doorstep!

No one from the countries of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras qualify for asylum. No one from any country in South America qualifies for asylum. These are all nice countries with elected governments, nice Constitutions, all types of civil rights and socialist programs. Sure some are poor, but so what? That's not a basis for asylum, and some have crime issues, so do all countries, that's not a basis for asylum.

We don't want to pay for detentions of people and processing of claims from people we know don't qualify.

So, just stop taking any asylum requests from anyone from this hemisphere. If they still want to leave their country, they can call the UN Refugee Program and see where they end up with that, but they won't end up in the United States.

According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 122 caravan members were caught illegally crossing the border, but 401 requested asylum, with 93 percent passing their initial screening.

This makes absolutely no sense. How is such a large number of asylum claimants passing their initial credible fear screening? AG Jeff Sessions is doing what he can to reduce the number that will ultimately be approved for asylum, but DHS, which the USCIS falls under, is not doing their part!

This was a major problem during the Obama administration but should not be happening now under the Trump administration.

Just to put things in perspective, take a look at what was happening under Obama's watch. The same thing should not be happening during the Trump administration!

REPORT: MAJORITY OF ASYLUM APPLICATIONS APPROVED ON THE SPOT

4:48 PM 07/18/2014 | USJonah Bennett | Contributor

Play Video

Numbers just released from the House Judiciary Committee show that in fiscal year 2014, 65 percent of asylum applications have been approved by officers on the spot, the Washington Examiner reports.


Approval rates for asylum have exploded in the past few years, based on data obtained from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

In 2007, the approval rate was only 28 percent, and as recent as 2013, asylum officials only granted 46 percent of all applications. Beyond agents stationed directly at the border are immigration judges, who handle cases in the event of rejection from border officers.


These judges have also dramatically increased their approval rates from 51 percent in 2007 to 74 percent in 2013. The numbers listed in the report do not include cases that are further appealed to federal court or to the Board of Immigration Appeals.

“Once individuals are granted asylum, they have access to all major federal welfare programs,” the report noted.


The suspicions raised by incredibly high asylum application approval rates have been confirmed in an internal Homeland Security report, where it was pointed out that a minimum of 70 percent of asylum cases contain either possible or proven fraud.

“President Obama’s refusal to crack down on rampant asylum fraud is one of the many reasons we are witnessing a surge of Central Americans seeking to enter the U.S. illegally at the border,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia. “New data showing that the vast majority of Central Americans’ asylum claims are immediately approved will only worsen the situation along our southern border by encouraging more to come and take advantage of the situation.”

Goodlatte’s worries have been translated into the Asylum Reform and Border Protection Act introduced Thursday — a result of the bipartisan delegation he led to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas to meet with local officials and surmise a set of solutions to the border crisis.

https://dailycaller.com/2014/07/18/r...d-on-the-spot/

Videos can be seen at link.

VOTE REPUBLICAN ON NOVEMBER 6, 2018!!

We need a big majority in the House and 60 Republicans in the US Senate to clean up this mess. Goodlatte and I'm sure Grassley too have been on to this for a long time, but without 60 Votes in the US Senate, it's just words to the wind with no power to pass the bills to fix this disaster. Republicans are primed, they've uncovered the problems, they have solutions, but they need not only a majority in the US House of Representatives, they need 60 Republican Senators to pass the bills.

VOTE RED!! VOTE REPUBLICAN!! VOTE ALL RED!! VOTE ALL REPUBLICAN!!!

You want to end sanctuary cities? Vote the Dems at the state and local level out of office, elect Republicans, we will end it.

You want to end catch and release? Vote the Dems out at all levels who are sucking on this scourge and lining their pockets in the process, elect Republicans, we will end it.

McAleenan is an Obama holdover. Kirstjen Nielsen is too weak and not a good choice to lead DHS. General Kelly is whispering in President Trump's ears. In my opinion this is not a good trio to listen to when it comes to securing our borders and stopping illegal immigration.

Asylum claims should cease. Set up safe zones for these people in their own countries or somewhere else if truly fearful. Have people make decisons on claims that are immigration Hawks. No more amnesty supporters making decisons at the border or in hearings.

Originally Posted by MW

“President Obama’s refusal to crack down on rampant asylum fraud is one of the many reasons we are witnessing a surge of Central Americans seeking to enter the U.S. illegally at the border,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia. “New data showing that the vast majority of Central Americans’ asylum claims are immediately approved will only worsen the situation along our southern border by encouraging more to come and take advantage of the situation.”

It appears it is even worse under Trump. Where is Goodlatte and all the other Republicans to call attention to this?

It has been said that Democrat and Republican parties are two wings on the same bird of prey.

Getting 60 votes in the U.S. Senate during the 2018 mid-terms is a virtual impossibility. According to the most optimistic predictions, we'll be fortunate to maintain the majority in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. Sure, we can increase our Republican numbers in the U.S. Senate, but an increase of just a few seats is about the best we can hope for.

Furthermore, by the time we take the open border amnesty supporting Chamber of Commerce owned RINO's out of the equation, we will fall far short of having the votes to make any serious headway on border security and immigration. I know this isn't what folks want to hear, and I hope I'm wrong, but that that's the way I see it.

The only advancements I see us making over the next two years on border security and immigration is policy changes and possibly Executive Orders that can stand up to potential court challenges. All this is assuming Trump doesn't work an amnesty deal with the Democrats. If he does we'll make advancements, but the trade-off will be an illegal alien amnesty. That's not something I think any of us really want.

In my view, there will be little possibility of serious border security improvements and immigration changes until after the 2020 national elections. That's assuming President Trump can win reelection and bring a red wave in with him, which is hopefully what will happen.

Right or wrong, that's the way I see it. Let's just hope Trump doesn't sell us out over an amnesty deal over the next two years.

I hope I'm wrong about most of this, but that's my prediction of events concerning border security and immigration over the next two years.

Originally Posted by stoptheinvaders

It appears it is even worse under Trump. Where is Goodlatte and all the other Republicans to call attention to this?

I don't really think it's worse, however, we are seeing the consequences of Obama's poor and purposeful poor leadership on the issue. Trump isn't Obama, Jeff Sessions isn't Holder or Lynch, and Kirstjen Nielsen isn't .... we'll, maybe she is. Unfortunately, the repercussions of Obama's rule are still echoing and negatively impacting us on border security and immigration.