Asylum Is as American as Apple Pie
Lawmakers should be trying to fix the system, not dismantle it.
She’d send judges and asylum officers, not soldiers.
Photographer: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images
President Trump’s assorted statements on asylum seekers often range from unhelpful to disgraceful — migrant caravans are attempting “an invasion,” or “This has nothing to do with asylum; this has to do with getting into our country illegally,” and so forth. But he’s actually right about one thing. The U.S. asylum system is near the point of collapse.
The number of asylum cases has more than quadrupled since 2010, feeding a backlog of hundreds of thousands. As a result, legitimate asylum cases languish, even as fraud and abuse of the system rise. The bigger the backlog in the asylum queue and the immigration courts, the greater the incentive for more would-be migrants to file asylum claims that allow them to enter and remain in the U.S.