In the days before political correctness, mental hospitals (loosely speaking) were often called insane asylums. They were places where society put those who were mentally ill. There was essentially no treatment provided because there was essentially no known treatment that worked. The people put there were just warehoused. People went in, but almost no one ever came out by any means other than death.
I got to thinking about insane asylums this morning when I read the fifteenth tweet from some Democrat or pundit lamenting that people coming to the USA to seek "asylum" were being held in detention and their children separated from them. It's such nonsense.
Years ago, Congress passed a law specifying the rules under which a foreigner can seek "asylum" in the USA. In order to qualify for asylum, a person must prove that he or she is unable or unwilling to return to his or her home country, and cannot obtain protection in that country, due to past persecution or a well-founded fear of being persecuted in the future “on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” In other words, it is not enough to say that you want to seek asylum, the asylum seeker must actually show past persecution or a well grounded fear of future persecution in one's home country.
This rule is important because it makes clear that bad conditions in one's home country does not qualify a potential immigrant for asylum. Economic conditions may be bad in El Salvador, and there may be drug wars in Honduras, but that is not proper grounds for the granting of asylum.
In the past, the hundreds of thousands of people who came to this country illegally from Central America were told that all they had to do was to "seek asylum". Under the Obama era policy of "catch and release", these folks were given a date for an asylum hearing and then let go into the USA. Less than 1% came back for their hearings.
Catch and release, however, was a perversion of the requirements of the immigration laws. Under clear US law, an asylum seeker is to be given a preliminary interview by an immigration officer who specializes in these matters. If the immigration officer finds no reasonable basis for the granting of asylum, then the person is deported. These hearings normally find no basis for asylum. Fewer than 10% of the requests get past this stage. Someone who loses at this point can appeal, however. The key though is that someone who loses on his or her request for asylum has entered the country illegally and is guilty of a crime. They are to be arrested and held for deportation or jail pending the determination of the asylum appeal.
It's a crazy view that by enforcing the law as written, Trump is creating a policy of separating families, one from the other. Trump is just doing what he swore to do in his oath of office. He is defending and upholding the laws of the USA. Obama violated his oath of office by ignoring the law.
And make no mistake about it. The laws Trump is enforcing were passed by Democrats. They can't ignore that inconvenient fact just by screaming "nevermind" at the top of their lungs.
The misuse of asylum requests is no longer going to be tolerated by the USA. That's a good thing. If Democrats don't want this to continue, then they ought to stop stalling any movement towards immigration reform and start working with Republicans to pass new legislation.
I got to thinking about insane asylums this morning when I read the fifteenth tweet from some Democrat or pundit lamenting that people coming to the USA to seek "asylum" were being held in detention and their children separated from them. It's such nonsense.
Years ago, Congress passed a law specifying the rules under which a foreigner can seek "asylum" in the USA. In order to qualify for asylum, a person must prove that he or she is unable or unwilling to return to his or her home country, and cannot obtain protection in that country, due to past persecution or a well-founded fear of being persecuted in the future “on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” In other words, it is not enough to say that you want to seek asylum, the asylum seeker must actually show past persecution or a well grounded fear of future persecution in one's home country.
This rule is important because it makes clear that bad conditions in one's home country does not qualify a potential immigrant for asylum. Economic conditions may be bad in El Salvador, and there may be drug wars in Honduras, but that is not proper grounds for the granting of asylum.
In the past, the hundreds of thousands of people who came to this country illegally from Central America were told that all they had to do was to "seek asylum". Under the Obama era policy of "catch and release", these folks were given a date for an asylum hearing and then let go into the USA. Less than 1% came back for their hearings.
Catch and release, however, was a perversion of the requirements of the immigration laws. Under clear US law, an asylum seeker is to be given a preliminary interview by an immigration officer who specializes in these matters. If the immigration officer finds no reasonable basis for the granting of asylum, then the person is deported. These hearings normally find no basis for asylum. Fewer than 10% of the requests get past this stage. Someone who loses at this point can appeal, however. The key though is that someone who loses on his or her request for asylum has entered the country illegally and is guilty of a crime. They are to be arrested and held for deportation or jail pending the determination of the asylum appeal.
It's a crazy view that by enforcing the law as written, Trump is creating a policy of separating families, one from the other. Trump is just doing what he swore to do in his oath of office. He is defending and upholding the laws of the USA. Obama violated his oath of office by ignoring the law.
And make no mistake about it. The laws Trump is enforcing were passed by Democrats. They can't ignore that inconvenient fact just by screaming "nevermind" at the top of their lungs.
The misuse of asylum requests is no longer going to be tolerated by the USA. That's a good thing. If Democrats don't want this to continue, then they ought to stop stalling any movement towards immigration reform and start working with Republicans to pass new legislation.
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