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While in major consideration as a VP pick for Trump, fresh off of losing before the Supreme Court on the issue of maintaining buoys and razor-wire in the Rio Grande which has blocked Border Patrol from being able to do their jobs, and caused the death of a migrant and her child, Greg Abbott went only CNN this previous weekend and lied and lied and lied.
Abbott is dead wrong about the "Laws passed by Congress on the books" regarding immigration. Crossing the border without a visa is not a crime. It's a minor infraction with a maximum $250 fine. It's not a jailable offense. It only becomes a crime if someone has been previously deported and is caught at the border a second time
Any alien who is apprehended while entering (or attempting to enter) the United States at a time or place other than as designated by immigration officers shall be subject to a civil penalty of—
(1) at least $50 and not more than $250 for each such entry (or attempted entry); or
(2) twice the amount specified in paragraph (1) in the case of an alien who has been previously subject to a civil penalty under this subsection.
Improper entry is a CIVIL offense, it’s not criminal. It’s not a crime, It’s not illegal. It doesn’t become criminal unless someone re-enters after they’ve been deported. Calling these people “Illegal Aliens” makes no sense because nothing here is illegal.
About 65% of those encountered at the border are immediately expelled by border patrol mostly due to Title 42, having a criminal record, being on the terror watchlist or being a single adult.
May 11 is the final day for the Trump and Biden administrations’ “Title 42” policy, which undid the basic right to seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border for 38 months.
Now, 2.8 million migrant expulsions later, the U.S. government is reverting to immigration law as it existed before the world went into lockdown. But as it does so, the Biden administration is adding a new limitation on asylum that, with Mexico’s cooperation, promises to continue the pandemic-era practice of sending asylum seekers away from the United States, placing many in danger.
Only families and unaccompanied children have been allowed temporary entry while they go through their deportation hearings. This adds to a growing backlog that can take years to process, but the recent Senate immigration bill would have increased border patrol and immigration judges to reduce that backlog drastically.
Abbott claims that allowing someone who has entered without a Visa to apply for Asylum is “against the law” but that simply isn’t the case.
It is perfectly legal to enter the country between a port of entry and request Asylum. Asylum law doesn't restrict this right.
8 U.S. Code § 1158.
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.
Entering the U.S. for asylum is legal. Normally a person requests asylum at a port of entry and has a meeting with Border Patrol voluntarily This is known as “Affirmative Asylum.”
To obtain asylum through the affirmative asylum process you must be physically present in the United States. You may apply for asylum regardless of how you arrived in the United States or your current immigration status.
You must apply for asylum within 1 year of the date of your last arrival in the United States, unless you can show:
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Changed circumstances that materially affect your eligibility for asylum or extraordinary circumstances relating to the delay in filing; and
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You filed within a reasonable amount of time given those circumstances.You may apply for affirmative asylum by submitting Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal, to USCIS.
However, the reality is that since the Trump administration’s Border Patrol had been throttling this process, denying access via ports of entry and not allowing people to even make their Asylum requests in the normal legal manner.
At the height of the Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy at the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump administration officials have justified the US’s disgraceful detention and deportation policies under the pretext that these families and individuals are passing the border ‘illegally,’ that is, between ports of entry.
[…]
Although most asylum-seekers continue to cross into the United States between ports of entry, risking prosecution and potential difficulties in their asylum claim, there has been an increase in asylum-seekers at the official border crossings and a marked slow-down by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in processing them.
[…]
Although most asylum-seekers continue to cross into the United States between ports of entry, risking prosecution and potential difficulties in their asylum claim, there has been an increase in asylum-seekers at the official border crossings and a marked slow-down by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in processing them.
Trump’s administration refused to do their job at ports of entry and essentially forced Asylum seekers to enter between those ports of entry in order to make their Asylum requests because it is absolutely valid to enter - even improperly - then go to U.S. officials and request Asylum as a defense against deportation.
A defensive application for asylum occurs when you request asylum as a defense against removal from the United States. For asylum processing to be defensive, you must be in removal proceedings in immigration court with the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).
So yes, it is legal to enter improperly and then request asylum after the fact - in fact - that’s exactly how the process is designed to work. People do this then they are assigned a hearing for their asylum and if that fails they then go through their hearings for deportation. The right to a trial is part of the 6th Amendment, and under the 14th Amendment, all persons within the jurisdiction of a state are granted “equal protection” under the law. So migrants — even if they are undocumented — still get due process and the right to a trial. Ultimately about 35% of those who go through this process are eventually deported in a process that takes years to complete.
The fact is that Biden has already created restrictions blocking access to asylum.
Seeking asylum is legal and a human right, long recognized in both U.S. and international law. The Biden Administration's asylum ban runs contrary to this, robbing many asylum seekers of a fair chance to present their case to an immigration judge. It is similar to measures introduced by the Trump Administration that were repeatedly blocked by federal courts.
[…]
The asylum ban bars asylum seekers who crossed through another country on their way to the southern U.S. border, unless they have previously applied for (and been denied) asylum elsewhere or managed to receive an appointment at a port of entry through a new U.S. government app for smartphones.
These requirements are unfeasible and impractical for many people in need of protection, as some asylum seekers cannot find safety in the countries where they first arrive because of violence or persecution similar to that in their native land. Most asylum seekers travel to the U.S. through Mexico, which is already one of the largest recipients of asylum applications. Although a viable country for some asylum seekers, the country faces record levels of violence and is not a safe place for many.
These changes made by Biden were challenged in court and blocked by a judge.
New York, NY, July 25, 2023 — The International Rescue Committee (IRC) welcomes today’s decision by a federal court to block the Asylum Ban regulation introduced by the Biden Administration. The court’s decision found that the policy was “arbitrary and capricious” and contrary to federal asylum law. The decision mirrors a court decision in 2019 against a similar policy introduced by the Trump Administration.
So when people like Abbot - or Fox News - just blithely claim that Biden can just change the rules all on his own, they are incorrect. He did try to change things - but those changes were contrary to current Asylum law.
The following week on State of the Union Alejandro Mayorkas responded to Abbott, and everything he says here is correct.
It would take Congress to change the law, and even Congress would be limited in doing that because our Asylum laws are based on UN treaties that have been signed and ratified under the 1951 Convention on the Refugee.
The fact is that most who've entered who haven’t been immediately expelled are pending deportation under due process, not according to some crazed draconian reading of the law that Abbott imagines.
If you don’t have a criminal record, aren’t on the watch list and don’t commit a crime - there is no reason or probable cause to summarily throw people of the country without having their hearing.
That would be illegal.
Now, to be clear, there is an option for what is called “expedited removal,” but Asylum is still available to migrants even in that situation.
Expedited removal is a process by which low-level immigration officers can summarily remove certain noncitizens without a hearing. Undocumented noncitizens placed in expedited removal proceedings are entitled to access the asylum system if they express fear of persecution, torture, or of returning to their home country,
[…]
Created in 1996 as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, expedited removal applies to noncitizens who arrive at a port of entry if they do not have entry documents or if they have tried to enter through fraud or misrepresentation, with certain exceptions.1 It has also been expanded to noncitizens who entered by sea without inspection and who have been in the United States for less than two years, and to those who cross a land border without inspection and are arrested within two weeks of their arrival and within 100 miles of the border. From June 2020 through March 2022, immigration officers were authorized to use expedited removal to the full extent permitted by law. This expansion of the regime enabled officers to apply it to any noncitizen who had not been “admitted or paroled” into the United States (those who had “entered without inspection”) and who could not establish that they had been physically present in the United States for the previous two years.
What obviously needs to happen is providing more resources to Border Patrol so that no one can cheat this process by avoiding them during entry, and also provide more judges to greatly speed up the asylum and deportation hearing process.
These features were included in the Bipartisan Senate Border Deal that the GOP and Abbott’s ally Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson chose to kill.
As a point of fact, “Migrant Crime” as Trump calls it, is not nearly as bad as he proclaims.
“You know, in New York, what’s happening with crime is it’s through the roof, and it’s called ‘migrant crime,’” Trump told a recent Michigan rally. “They beat up police officers. You’ve seen that they go in, they stab people, hurt people, shoot people. It’s a whole new form, and they have gangs now that are making our gangs look like small potatoes.”
However, wrote Olympia Sooner and Garrett Haake, "An NBC News review of available 2024 crime data from the cities targeted by Texas’ 'Operation Lone Star,' which buses or flies migrants from the border to major cities in the interior — shows overall crime levels dropping in those cities that have received the most migrants. Overall crime is down year over year in Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, New York and Los Angeles. Crime has risen in Washington, D.C., but local officials do not attribute the spike to migrants." Moreover, the report says, "a Department of Justice report found that 'there was no evidence that the percentage of unauthorized or authorized immigrant population at the city level impacted shifts in the homicide rates and no evidence that immigration is connected to robbery at the city level.'"
Generally, migrants bring the average crime rate down, not up.
But then again it’s not really surprising since Trump also regularly lies about the border.
"First of all, Donald Trump can't even speak in complete sentences," Scarborough said. "He's throwing out taunts about governors. again, like he is a child, like he is a 5-year-old. I guess, I don't know, people that vote for him like petulant little brats. I don't know why. They don't let their kids act like petulant little brat, but maybe they think they want a president who's a petulant little brat."
"Then he says things were better in 2020 than 2016," Scarborough added. "As we said, it is a complete lie. Illegal border crossings were at a 50-year low under Barack Obama and Joe Biden in 2016. When Donald Trump got into office, that's when the border crisis really exploded."
"Donald Trump is no longer a blank slate," Geist said. "This is not 2016. If there is a crisis at the border, he had four years as president to do something about it. He controlled Washington for the first two years, both houses of Congress – didn't build the wall he promised, didn't do any of these things, which speaks to the idea that, of course, he wants to keep this issue alive, wants to keep it up in the air."
"That is why he has directed his lieutenants in the House of Representatives not to sign onto this bipartisan legislation," Geist added. "If they do, it gets at the problem. It begins to resolve, it gets better. He believes that works in the favor of Joe Biden. We saw it again [Thursday], the contrasting styles. One man who now actually wants to work with Republicans to get something done on the border."
That Senate bill wouldn’t have solved every problem, but it could have been a great improvement since the backlog of those pending their deportation hearings have ballooned up to 3 Million.
A new record was reached in November. The Immigration Court backlog passed 3 million pending cases. Just 12 months ago, during November 2022, the backlog was 2 million. That means the case backlog has grown by a million cases in just the past 12 months.
Immigration Judges are swamped. Immigration Judges now average 4,500 pending cases each. If every person with a pending immigration case were gathered together, it would be larger than the population of Chicago, the third largest city in the United States. Indeed, the number of waiting immigrants in the Court’s backlog is now larger than the population found in many states.
Reducing the backlog would be good for the country and good for the migrants. It would be the least we could do to help solve the immigration crisis by making it more of an orderly and speedy process.
But thanks to people like Abbott - we can’t have that.
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