Federal judges created a loophole in the law by mandating the release of “families with children” after a short period of detention. Often times, these “families,” most of whom hail from Honduras or other Central America countries, request political asylum as soon as they reach the border, despite the fact that many of them openly admit to coming to the U.S. for economic reasons. As early as 2016 government officials warned that loophole in the nation’s immigration law would incentivize the abduction of children so that would-be illegal aliens could pose as families.
Not surprisingly, the Department of Homeland Security reports that the number of family units crossing the border increased by 625 percent since last April. Moreover, the U.S. has experienced a 900 percent increase in illegal aliens abducting children as props to pose as families this year, with 400 such attempts already reported thus far. Despite Trump administration warnings that aliens illegally entering the U.S. would be prosecuted, many would-be illegal aliens, like many of the participants in the illegal alien caravan, continue to claim political asylum as a way to sidestep increased border enforcement.
Border Patrol agents tell FAIR that stories coming from Central Americans requesting political asylum are so over-rehearsed and identical that asylum officers could literally document the alien’s claim before they are even interviewed. Of course, for those who claim to be fleeing political persecution, it begs the question why they didn’t ask for asylum once they entered Mexico, as they were no longer in the country where their reported persecution was taking place.
To address this form of asylum shopping, the Trump Administration is reportedly negotiating a “first safe country” agreement with Mexico – similar to the one the U.S. currently has with Canada – that would require asylum seekers to make their political asylum request in the first safe country they enter.
That one policy would have stopped this spring’s infamous illegal alien caravan, which left Central America and spent a month crossing Mexico, in its tracks.