Illegal immigration is many things. It’s an attack on a nation’s sovereignty, a national security crisis and a catalyst for cultural upheaval. But, more than anything else, illegal immigration is just one big, fat scam. Nothing illustrates the scam of illegal immigration better than new data recently released from the Biden administration’s asylum program.
During Joe Biden’s first year in office, his administration created the “Dedicated Dockets” program, which was intended to fast-track asylum claims made by illegal aliens. The program promised to resolve each migrant’s case within 300 days. New data reported late last month about the program confirmed what we’ve known for years: that the vast majority of asylum claims are bogus.
More than 99% of illegal aliens who are part of the “Dedicated Dockets” program in Los Angeles resulted in removal orders, according to the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy. The Center also found that 72% of illegal aliens with deportation orders ere tried in absentia. These numbers likely will not be covered in the corporate media, but they should shock every American to his or her core. These numbers further expose what a sham America’s immigration system has become, and the bad faith of those who continue to support this failed status quo.
Anti-borders advocates like to depict illegal aliens as victims fleeing for their lives, desperate to escape violence and persecution, but that’s only true in a small minority of cases. The vast majority of asylum seekers in the U.S. are economic migrants, not legitimate refugees. To be sure, there are legitimate asylum seekers, and laws in place to protect them, but most aliens who apply for asylum do so not because the U.S. will provide them safety, but because the U.S. will provide them economic opportunity.
The Trump administration attempted to address these problems by entering into “safe third country” agreements with Central American countries that export large numbers of migrants to the U.S., including Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The agreements required migrants to first seek asylum in one of those countries before seeking asylum in the U.S., ensuring that the American asylum system was not being abused by aliens who just want to live and work in a wealthy country.
The “safe third party” agreements were effective at reducing fraud in the asylum system, as well as reducing the flow of illegal aliens at our border. But, presumably because the agreements were successfully negotiated by former President Donald Trump, Biden and his administration decided to jettison the program.
Just weeks after taking office, the Biden administration announced that they were terminating “safe third country” agreements with Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. The move was part of an effort by Biden to demolish his predecessor’s immigration legacy, an effort that continues in full nearly 17 months into the current administration.
We are all worse off for this effort. As we’ve seen in many other areas, the Biden White House could significantly mitigate the immigration crisis just by reinstating successful Trump policies. This is also true of the “remain-in-Mexico” program, which required asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while awaiting their court dates. This policy dramatically reduced the flow of illegal aliens at our border, and brought some much needed integrity to our asylum system.
So, of course the Biden administration is currently at the Supreme Court trying to end the program. The same could be said for the use of Title 42 at the border, which has allowed asylum seekers to be turned away at the border since the spring of 2020. The Biden Administration is also in court trying to end that policy. It is only because of groups like the Immigration Reform Law Institute, which is fighting the extreme anti-borders agenda in courts throughout the nation, that this administration is hitting roadblocks on its border policy.
Our asylum system has been broken for a long time and is being made worse by a White House attempting to stomp out every effort the past administration made to fix the problems. That more than 99 percent of asylum claims being made under the “Dedicated Dockets” program are without merit comes as a surprise only to those not paying attention.
William J. Davis is a communications associate for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration
