THE BORDER CRISIS REVISITED

Several years ago, I wrote about the border crisis. While circumstances have changed and presidential administrations have come and gone, the situation has gotten worse. Permitting tens of thousands of migrants to be stranded at the border in a humanitarian and political crisis was unheard-of until 2019. These untenable conditions are now taken for granted.

The solution to the border crisis remains in the hands of Congress. A complete overhaul of American immigration policy is not in the cards. However, recent bipartisan discussions to tighten up asylum policy as part of a government funding deal are encouraging.

We are overwhelmed by the daily news coverage of thousands of migrants in Mexico waiting for the opportunity to cross the border, only to form large encampments in America’s border towns. Buses full of migrants are sent to northern cities that lack the capacity to care for them.  Congress has not allocated federal funds to aid the involved states or local border communities.

Frustration and anger are directed at the President and his administration. In fact, the executive branch can only take limited action because of existing laws. This is unfortunate because Congress is often ungovernable and in no position to restore order at the border.

The two key components of the border crisis are (1) the need for border security and (2) legislation on comprehensive immigration reform. Republicans have insisted on addressing only the security problem with illegal or unhelpful physical barriers and a draconian show of force. Republicans have long avoided passing immigration reforms which would provide funding for border security based on new technology and that would provide the ability to decide asylum claims quickly.

Democrats support immigration reform legislation that includes funds for more advanced and humane border security along with an overhaul of the entire immigration system. This would include the fate of the Dreamer population, those undocumented immigrants living in America since they were young children.

In the last several years, the nature of the border crisis has dramatically changed. The problem is no longer undocumented migrants from Mexico entering illegally to work or join family members. According to government statistics, the majority of recent migrants are citizens from the troubled Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Increasingly there are also new migrants from Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba.

The US Customs and Border Patrol reports that 250,000 migrants from these countries aggravated the most recent crisis over the past eighteen months. These individuals made the dangerous journey north to escape violent crime, poverty, natural disasters, climate change and other economic struggles. Few of the cases actually involve political persecution. However, after crossing the border, the majority of these migrants can legally claim political asylum until their cases are processed.

The existing U.S. asylum system was created in the Refugee Act of 1980 to review claims of persecution on a limited basis. Today, the asylum system has been transformed into the main avenue for mass immigration, a function it was never designed to serve. Julia Preston, the national immigration correspondent for the New York Times, addressed the problem in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs. (The Real Origins of the Border Crisis). Ms. Preston found that “By the end of 2022, almost 800,000 asylum cases were awaiting adjudication in the immigration courts. The average asylum case took more than four years to decide. Since Congress has passed no clear-cut procedures for deporting asylum seekers whose claims were rejected, many of those people and their families, along with tens of thousands of asylum seekers denied in previous years, have quietly joined the millions of undocumented immigrants already in the country.”

The existing law creates a classic funnel, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. Initially, all migrants can request asylum once they set foot on American soil. Next, these thousands of applicants are processed through an ever-narrowing chute of bureaucratic and legal requirements that takes years to implement.

What would new asylum legislation look like? It is clear that a system, which quickly and fairly processes new arrivals, is the sensible approach. When there is no opportunity to remain in the country for years as an unprocessed asylum seeker the flow of migrants will dramatically decrease. To this end, legislation must be passed to create numerous, large reception centers in border cities. These processing centers would provide faster screening, immediate deportation for ineligible applicants and give resettlement assistance for those who qualify. More asylum judges and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asylum officers must be hired. The DHS officers must be given the legal authority to make administrative decisions on uncomplicated claims to reduce those cases that require time-consuming court action.

Lawmakers should update and clarify the all-important “asylum persecution standard” to include those migrants who are victims of organized crime or sexual abuse. There must be immediate deportation of migrants whose claims are denied.

Congress must restore the asylum system to its intended, limited role. First, the requirements for asylum must be modified to match a changing world. Second, the other legal paths to immigration such as the labor and family unification options that are now underutilized must permit more legal immigration.

There has been a lack of Congressional will to find common ground and pass a bipartisan immigration bill. It is time for the American public to understand this complex problem and demand that Congress address the crisis.