An American Citizen Tries to Understand the Border Crisis

I feel like American citizens should be able to understand the problem at the Southern border and asylum law and stuff like that.
I hope that is true.
Let's give it a try and do the best we can!

The material in this blog post was written when it looked like there might be, just possibly, a deal for a new border law in Congress.
Later, of course, that deal fell through.
Anyway, that's when this was written, when it looked like there might be a deal.

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1

President Joe Biden has been negotiating for weeks with Senate Republicans about getting more tools to deal with the surge of migrants across the southern border.
One thing Biden wants is authority to shut down the border if more than 5000 migrants cross in one day.

Why is Biden asking for authority to shut down the border?
Because currently the law does NOT give the president that authority!
(By the way, states do not have any legal or Constitutional authority to shut down the border either.)
Most people don’t know this, but if anyone says the president should shut down the border now, they are actually saying the president should break the law.
Which is unacceptable.

I have many ideas about what I would try to do at the border if I were president, but in the current situation I hope the Congress will give Biden the tools he needs to manage the border more effectively WITHOUT breaking US asylum law.

Below I will give a reference to current US asylum law as I understand it.
If anyone thinks I am wrong, please give me a reference showing how I am wrong so I can learn.

Here is a link to an article about the border deal many people hoped would happen, until it didn't.

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/31/1228229591/senate-gop-split-risks-bipartisan-border-deal-as-trump-looms-large

2

Now, here is the law.
We should expect presidents to obey this law, or we should expect Congress to change it.
One or the other.
We should certainly NOT be asking a president, or a state, to break this law.

US Asylum Law: “Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien’s status, may apply for asylum in accordance with this section or, where applicable, section 1225(b) of this title.”

Here is the law for people who want to check it for themselves.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1158

3

And finally, here is some information about keeping asylum seekers in another country while they wait for their asylum hearing in the US.
US asylum law does allow us to have asylum seekers wait in another country, but there are three conditions:

1. The country they are going to stay in has to agree.
2. The country they are going to stay in has to be safe for asylum seekers.
3. The asylum seekers have to be able to get into the US when it is time for their asylum hearings.

Groups like the ACLU say that conditions 2 and 3 were never met, which would mean the remain in Mexico policy was never legal.
There were court cases about these issues since the policy began, but I don't believe these court cases were ever resolved.
Now, since February 2023, Mexico does not agree to keep asylum seekers in Mexico so that is another reason why the remain in Mexico policy would now be illegal, even if it was legal before.

Here is a link to information on Mexico not agreeing to keep asylum seekers in their country.

Mexico Will No Longer Hold Asylum Seekers

4

Personally, I think we should build shelters along the border where we can hold people seeking asylum in a safe and secure place.
Then we should increase the number of immigration judges and staff so the asylum claims can be quickly reviewed.
People who meet the conditions would come into the US and people who do not meet the conditions would go home.

To do this we need Congress to approve funding for the shelters and the additional judges and staff.

More long term, we should see if we can help improve conditions in the countries the migrants are coming from so they would rather stay home. I assume we could do this with mutually beneficial economic deals with those countries. That way, we make money, they make money, and people can have better lives without leaving home.

That’s what I would like to see.

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I have not read this book, but maybe it is a good place to learn more about the border crisis.

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Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Wayne Gadway