Thread: GOP bill would let asylum seekers apply in Mexico, in bid to ease immigration court b

GOP bill would let asylum seekers apply in Mexico, in bid to ease immigration court backlog

11 hours ago
By Charlie Lapastora | Fox News

LOS FRESNOS, Texas – A Republican lawmaker said he has a novel idea to cut down asylum seekers illegally crossing the border.

Make them apply for asylum before they reach the U.S. border.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., is introducing a bill that would require asylum officers to conduct credible fear screenings at U.S. embassies or consulates in Mexico and Canada before asylum seekers can cross the border.

Inhofe said that would cut down on the surge of migrants illegally crossing the Mexico-U.S. border. Currently, migrants ask for asylum at U.S. points of entry. They are given a court date, but many fail to show up – leading to a large number of illegal immigrants lost within the immigration court system.

“The key here is to make sure they don’t get in,” Inhofe said. “Once those individuals who are in the pipeline do come to the United States [and] find out that it’s not working – [that] people are not able to get into the United States – then the demand will drop off.”


Sen. James Inhofe after touring Border Patrol and ICE facilities in Los Fresnos, Texas on August 7. (Fox News)

The number of affirmative asylum applications by migrants from Central America’s Northern Triangle Countries (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras) rose dramatically from 7,723 in 2014, to 25,801 in 2016 – a 234 percent increase. More migrants sought asylum from 2014 to 2016 than the preceding 17 years combined.

Aside from Central America, there is also a rising number of asylum seekers coming from China, Egypt and India. Inhofe said he plans on introducing the bill on August 20.


Source: Department of Homeland Security (Fox News)

“That way they never step foot into the United States and they have to wait and have that case heard before they enter into the United States,” Inhofe said. “Obviously, most of the people who are seeking asylum and are assigned a court date here in the United States, they walk away and they never show up anyway.”

But Michael L. Detsky, an immigration attorney who's been practicing for 40 years and represents asylum seekers, calls the bill “unworkable.”

“I think the legislation is short-sighted. I think it’s mean-spirited, I think it doesn’t take into account the practicality of asylum that it should be more than just a cursory ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ based upon someone who is unassisted by council, in most cases,” Detsky said. “I don’t think that it’s going to have a meaningful hearing for the asylum applicant.”

When it comes to defensive asylum applications (removal proceedings before an immigration judge), the denial rate has gone up by 10 percent over the last three years, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University.

For affirmative asylum applications (those seeking asylum by entering points of entry at the border) around 21 percent of them were granted in 2015. In 2016, only around 10 percent were granted, according to DHS—an 11 percent decrease within that year timeframe.


“The notion that it’s a refugee policy…it’s more of a nationalist policy,” said Stephen Nuño, an immigration expert who is chair of Northern Arizona University’s Politics and International Affairs department. “We can couch it in language that this is going to protect the United State.' (Fox News)

“All of the various regulations and proposed regulations that we see are emphasizing ways to find to deny benefits rather than ways to find to grant the benefits,” Detsky said. “We are very, very busy as members of the American Immigration Lawyers Association across the board and are learning ways to counteract this prevalent attitude that is very, very unfortunate."

Stephen Nuño, an immigration expert who is chair of Northern Arizona University’s Politics and International Affairs department, said the bill is just designed to “fire up” Inhofe's conservative base.

“The notion that it’s a refugee policy…it’s more of a nationalist policy,” Nuño said. “…The only thing this is going to solve for Sen. Inhofe is stoking the flames of anti-immigrant sentiment in his state.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018...t-backlog.html

How about terminate and defund the ENTIRE program all together!

They need to stay home and go build America on their soil.

We are not the dumping ground for the world.

They can go seek "asylum" in Russia, Japan, China, New Zealand, the North Pole!

WE ARE FED UP AND FULL UP! NO MORE PEOPLE!

Unfortunately the current make up of our U.S. Congress will probably prevent this bill from ever reaching the House floor for a vote. Anything that seems to make sense and actually reduces immigration isn't going to be brought up for a floor vote by current leadership.

Originally Posted by Jean

GOP bill would let asylum seekers apply in Mexico, in bid to ease immigration court backlog

Not a bad idea.

Congress needs to end all asylum into the United States. All of it. It's all phony, it's all fake, it's all just one big money scam.

They need to start focusing on deporting a QUOTA of TPS out of here BEFORE the expiration date to stay!

We want ZERO on the day TPS expires for Haiti and Central America!

Start loading them up on barges and boot them out!

Send out 20,000 a month and get going! Thousands can fit on barges and send them back.

This has turned into a never ending extension to stay and back door amnesty!

WE WANT THEM GONE TOO!

WE ARE NOT THE SOLUTION TO THE WORLD'S PROBLEMS, THEIR POVERTY OR OVERBREEDING!

I would stop all asylum and refugee programs into the United States. It not only causes US problems, it also causes problems in the stepping-stone countries like Mexico. Don't get me wrong, I truly don't care what anyone does to Mexico at this point, because I am so upset with them over illegal immigration, but when we have these stupid programs and people in other countries want to try get in on them, even when they're not eligible, they travel through countries like Mexico to get here.

Just stop it all. Our programs don't solve the "humanitarian crisis" of bad economies, natural disasters and revolutions. Citizens in these countries need to solve their own problems, fix their economies, prepare for natural disasters and stop having useless deadly revolutions they can't usually win or even manage when they do.

You are exactly right Judy.

Shut it all down...it is a domino effect on everybody.

Now look at Venezuela fleeing to surrounding countries.

People are ticked off about it and now attacking them at their borders.

NO ONE WANTS THEM AND NEITHER DO WE!

LOCK THE BORDERS DOWN ACROSS THE WORLD AND TURN THEM RIGHT BACK AROUND

THEY ARE DESTROYING OUR PEACE AND PROSPERTIY, OUR SAFETY AND SECURITY AND WE WANT THEM GONE!