Trump Convinces Mexico to Keep 'Asylum Seekers' While Requests are Investigated
President Donald Trump seems to have convinced Mexico to keep all asylum seekers as their applications are being considered here in the U.S.
This is something that the left said Trump could not accomplish. Looks like Trump has won through the art of the deal once again.
Indeed, for a while even the Mexicans said that they simply would not allow those seeking asylum here to stay in Mexico while their paperwork was being processed in the U.S.
Suddenly, all that has changed. After Trump greased the wheels a bit. Suddenly Mexico agreed to allow the asylum seekers to stay in Mexico.
According to the Associated Press:
The U.S. and Mexican governments called it a unilateral move by the Trump administration, but the announcement came two days after the U.S. pledged $10.6 billion in aid for Central America and southern Mexico to make people feel less compelled to leave. Critics, including some legal experts, said migrants would be unsafe in some Mexican border towns and said the U.S. was illegally abandoning its humanitarian role, hinting at a legal challenge against a backdrop of previous courtroom setbacks for Trump on immigration.
The government of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office Dec. 1, said foreigners will have temporary permission to remain in Mexico on humanitarian grounds after getting a notice to appear in U.S. immigration court and they will be allowed to seek work authorization.
The Department of Homeland Security praised the move:
“They will not be able to disappear into the United States,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told the House Judiciary Committee. “They will have to wait for approval. If they are granted asylum by a U.S. judge, they will be welcomed into America. If they are not, they will be removed to their home countries.”
Nielsen said in a statement that the move “will also allow us to focus more attention on those who are actually fleeing persecution.”
Of course, the fact is, most of those seeking asylum are filing bogus claims.
According to a recent report, fully 91 percent of the asylum claims being made by these “migrant caravaners” are fake.
A new report finds that almost all the “asylum” claims by members of the so-called “migrant caravan”are bogus.
According to numbers from the Department of Homeland Security, only a tiny 9 percent of the asylum claims filed by members of the migrant caravan are legitimate. Fully 91 percent are false.
According to Townhall:
“The low statutory requirements and legal loopholes in our laws encourage aliens to claim credible fear at our Southern border knowing they will be promptly released into the interior with work permits pending the determination of their full claim. In recent years, data shows that more than 65 percent of asylum seekers at our border are from Central America – of those 89 percent pass their initial credible-fear interview,” DHS spokesperson Katie Waldman released Thursday afternoon. “Yet, the harsh reality is that 31 percent of aliens who pass that initial interview do not even show up for their hearing, while a staggering 40 percent of aliens who pass their initial interview do not even file an application.”
DHS goes on to add…
“Ultimately, only 9 percent of Northern Triangle petitioners are found eligible for asylum by a judge – leaving 91 percent ineligible for asylum,” she continued. “The fact that only 9 percent of those who initially claim asylum are found eligible, indicates that we are expending most of our limited resources – detention space, court space and the time of our asylum officers and immigration judges – denying frivolous or illegitimate claims of asylum from the 9 out of 10 who are found ineligible.”
Current federal law requires illegal aliens traveling with their children form certain countries in Central America should be released into the U.S. after a 20-day detention while the government considers their asylum claims.
“Where are those 91 percent today? While some are properly removed from the U.S. by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), many of those who are released on a promise to appear in court disappear into the country’s interior to live and work illegally. In FY17, only 1 percent of the 226,119 removals conducted by ICE were on Alternatives to Detention,” the DHS spokesperson said.
So, in the end Trump and the U.S.A. win, at least on this one issue.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
