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Saturday, November 24, 2018

Good News For Actual Asylum Seekers As Well As For The USA

According to reports today, the USA and Mexico have reached an agreement under which those seeking asylum in the USA would remain in Mexico while their cases are considered.  That would mean that people like those in the so-called caravans would wait on the Mexican side of the border while they made application for asylum and their cases were considered.  Those waiting would also be able to claim that they would be in danger while waiting in Mexico, but that would be a hard hurdle to jump.

The system has many benefits.

1.  First, for asylum seekers, there would be the benefit of having their cases handled more quickly.  The USA will be able to process nearly two times as many cases per day as is currently possible.  Right now, the system is slowed down by the need to find detention facilities for those seeking asylum in the USA.

2.  Also for asylum seekers, by staying in Mexico, they would not face the possibility of being separated from their families because they were placed in detention pending determination of their cases.

3.  For the USA, it will now be able to process more asylum seekers more quickly as discussed above.

4.  America will also be able more easily to weed out bogus asylum seekers since they won't be able to run away and hide in the USA.

5.  There will also be much greater difficulty in making bogus claims for asylum.  Anyone who applies for asylum and loses in after making his or her case to the immigration judge will not be sent back into Mexico but will be deported back to his or her country of origin.  What that means is that young men who come to the USA from central American to seek work won't be able to use false claims to seek asylum because they will likely end up deported back to Honduras or Nicaragua.  Asylum will no longer be a way to end run the immigration system.

Without a doubt, there will shortly be some sort of legal challenge to this new system.  Indeed, there are probably a batch of liberal judges in California or Hawaii or elsewhere in the 9th Circuit who are thinking about reasons to block implementation of the new policy.  Ultimately, however, this new policy will be implemented.  It will be a major victory for the rule of law as well as for President Trump.

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