Enemy Of The Good

A dozen years ago there were 300,000 pending asylum cases in the whole of the United States.  Today there are that many alone in the whole of the state of New York.  There are more than three million asylum cases clogging the immigration courts today.

That, gentle reader, is the gist of the immigration problem.

Sure, it's easy to just flippantly suggest that we have an open border.  But that is lazy thinking. 

Our immigration law was written decades ago to deal with young Mexicans attempting to sneak across the border seeking employment.  Nowadays, thousands upon thousands of individuals from all corners of the world stream across the southern border just as eager to work and they willingly surrender to border control for purposes of being processed thru a facility and setting into motion the first step to staying here.

Under the law, anyone who crosses over the border and makes it to US soil, legally or illegally, is allowed to claim asylum.  Making a claim for asylum has now become the surest path for migrants to stay in the United States; even if only a very few eventually win their case. 

To make an asylum claim all you have to do is state that returning to your home country would result in harm or death on the basis of nationality, race, religion, political beliefs or social group.

If a migrant admits to living in desperate poverty and is seeking work they are promptly deported.  If they make an asylum claim they can remain in the United States until their case is concluded.

You may not like it but that is the law. 

The truth of the matter is that most asylum claims are ultimately rejected; many years from now when our antiquated and overwhelmed immigration court system ultimately hears the case.  Of course by then the undocumented can disappear into the shadow economy.  Any children born in the US automatically receive birthright citizenship.  And deportation is nigh impossible as immigration authorities have their hands full identifying, arresting and expelling criminals and other bad actors. 

A wall will fix this, right?  I dunno.  World history is replete with failed walls.  Why?  People always find a way to go over, under, around or otherwise avoid them.  Consider this.  Only about 80 miles of new barrier was constructed during Donald Trump's entire four year term of office.  This included 47 miles of primary fencing and 33 miles of secondary fence.  Mexico did not contribute a single peso to build it.  Our southern frontier stretches thousands of miles.  It is estimated that it would require an investment of $25 billion for a Great Wall. 

Solution?

Our immigration system has not had a major overhaul in almost four decades.  Today we find ourselves overwhelmed by a stampede of migrants making asylum claims with a tiny fraction of the judges and personnel needed to make a quick determination of who has a legit reason to stay and who is returned to their homeland.

Over a period of four months the senate drafted bipartisan legislation that includes many significant reforms to our asylum policy.  While not a comprehensive overhaul it is a pretty good border security bill.  Mr. Trump has determined this crisis is key to his reelection playbook and has scuttled it. Is anyone surprised?  

Politicians like to support visible stuff.  More border agents.  More national guard troops.  More razor wire.  More wall.

In a functioning system there needs to be stuff behind the scenes such as additional capacity to conduct more interviews to quickly winnow the credible claims for asylum and rapidly deport those without.

Let's face it.  Our country continues to be the land of opportunity.  Migrants come here seeking a better life and will do whatever it takes to achieve that end.  Even if it means filing an unsupported asylum claim.

Maybe we need a system like that of our friendly neighbors to the north.  Canada sets immigration quotas based-upon skills it need to fill along with a manageable number of asylum seekers.  If I attempted to immigrate to Canada I would be turned away.  They don't need another old retired guy.

Perhaps killing this legislation lays the foundation for serious law-making on Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.  And another year, or more, of chaos at the border.  Voltaire had a saying for this:  L'ennemi du bien est le bien.  Loosely translated: Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the the good.