The flood of migrants and the growing backlog of asylum\ncases clogging up courts and straining social services has many American media\noutlets and the chattering class concerned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just to be clear, none of that angst is directed toward the overwhelmed American legal system, which has nearly a million backlogged asylum cases<\/a> pending, or the costs being borne by American taxpayers. But they are very worried about how it is affecting Mexico. Policies implemented by the Trump administration that require current asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their claims are being considered, and one that requires future migrants to ask for asylum in the first safe country they arrive in, \u201cmeans Mexico may see a staggering increase in the number of asylum claims, a difficult situation given how many migrants are already straining that country\u2019s asylum system,\u201d reported National Public Radio (NPR)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those concerns are, of course, legitimate. As reporter Carrie Kahn noted, \u201cDetention facilities in [Mexico] are overcrowded\u2026They’re ill-equipped for such large numbers now.\u201d Oddly, media outlets like NPR never expressed similar concerns about how the exponential growth of asylum-seekers<\/a> (most pressing bogus claims) is affecting the United States and communities on our side of the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All Things Considered<\/em>\nhost Mary Louise Kelly was quick to point out that U.S. policies are to blame\nfor the growing burdens on Mexico. \u201cThis week\u2019s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court\nupholding President Trump\u2019s [requirement that asylum seekers request protection\nin the first safe country they pass through]puts Mexico in a difficult\nposition,\u201d Kelly worried. \u201cThat means Mexico may see a staggering increase in\nthe number of asylum claims, a difficult situation given how many migrants are\nalready straining that country’s asylum system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kelly has a point. U.S. asylum policies are at the root of\nthe problem, just not the one she blamed. Rather, our ridiculously low bar for\nestablishing a \u201ccredible fear\u201d (which gets you into the country), and a\njudicial ruling that limits detention of families with children to just 20\ndays, are what sparked the surge of migrants making their way across Mexico.\nThese are policies that Congress could easily fix, but won\u2019t, requiring the\nadministration to take action to curb the abuse. Kelly might also have pointed\nout that until Mexico was pressured, under threat of tariffs, into doing more\nto secure its own southern border, it seemed quite content to allow hundreds of\nthousands of migrants to make their way to the U.S. border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In reality, the impact on Mexico may not be as dire as NPR\nand other pundits worry. Since the vast majority of the people claiming asylum\nare really economic migrants seeking greener pastures in the United States, the\nnew barriers aimed at preventing them from making fraudulent asylum claims will\nlikely result in dramatic decreases in the number of people entering Mexico\nillegally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n