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During his presidency, Donald Trump launched an immigration policy requiring asylum seekers to remain in Mexico until their scheduled immigration court date. President Joe Biden later terminated this policy and introduced his own approach, which has sparked controversy among some who argue that Biden’s changes have resulted in an influx of migrants and dangerous conditions.
Straight Arrow News contributor Timothy Carney contends that Trump’s policy was both humane and effective in deterring undocumented immigration, while Biden’s approach is contributing to a humanitarian crisis.
The first problem is the backlog in immigration courts. We can’t grant every asylum seeker a hearing the day he arrives. The delay is actually months long, sometimes years. The question is: What to do with those claiming asylum in that interim? Biden has tried to be humane. After all, these people might actually be the victims of persecution, and the delay is the fault of the U.S. courts.
So Biden changed U.S. policy to let anyone claiming asylum stay in the U.S. until his or her court hearing. That sounds nice, but think of the incentives this sets up. Anyone who can make it to the U.S. border can claim to be seeking asylum and thus get to stay in the U.S. freely for months or years. And really, it’s an indefinite stay, because it’s easy to disappear into our vast country and simply ignore your court date in the distant future. Thus, Biden’s policy amounts to throwing the door open to massive illegal immigration.
The result is record flows of undocumented Central and South Americans entering our country, exacerbating the backlogs and causing overcrowding. Donald Trump’s policy was to deter such gaming of the system. If you were seeking asylum from, say, Guatemala and you arrived at the U.S. border, we would take your name, set your court date and tell you to remain in Mexico until that date.
