Immigration Expert: ‘There Is Mass Immigration Asylum Fraud Underway Here’

Illegal Immigrants

Senior National Security Fellow Todd Bensman with the Center for Immigration Studies warned there is “mass immigration asylum fraud” taking place in the U.S.

Bensman, who has interviewed thousands of migrants over the years, explained on Thursday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy how migrants, specifically from Venezuela and Haiti, often live in other more stable countries – including Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador – for years before making their way to the United States to work and live a prosperous life.

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DeSantis Lays Out Border Security Plan at Event in Eagle Pass, Texas

In a campaign stop in Eagle Pass, Texas, on Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis presented his border security plan as part of his platform to win the Republican nomination for president.

The plan includes reinstating several policies implemented by the Trump administration, including ending catch and release, reinstating the Remain in Mexico policy, among others. His plan also includes using the U.S. military to work with Border Patrol agents “on day one, and they’ll continue to help until the [border] wall is finished,” according to a campaign document obtained by The Center Square.

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Ahead of Expected Illegal Immigrant Surge, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst Urges Bill Allowing States to Finish Border Wall

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) blasted the Biden administration for its ongoing failure in addressing the southwest border crisis, which is about to get a whole lot worse when Title 42 ends later this week.

The Iowa Republican said it’s time to move on her Build It Act, legislation allowing states to finish the border wall by using previously purchased materials.

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Biden Admin to Hike Fees on Legal Immigrants to Fund Processing of Illegal Migrants Who Claim Asylum

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

The Biden administration will increase the costs for legal immigrants to apply for permits, visas and green cards to help mitigate the backlog of asylum cases due to record surges of illegal immigration at the southern border, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced Tuesday.

The recent surge in illegal immigration has contributed to the years-long asylum backlogs, where applicants wait an average of 4.3 years nationwide to appear in court, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). Under the proposed new rules, H-1B application fees for skilled workers will jump from $60 to $780, fees for non-agricultural workers will jump from $460 to $1080 and fees for green card applicants will jump from $1,140 $1,540, USCIS said.

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House Democrats from Philadelphia Tout ‘Sanctuary City’ Status as Illegals’ Bus Arrives

Democrats in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives’ Philadelphia Delegation on Thursday took the arrival of 28 illegal immigrants into their municipality as occasion to celebrate Philadelphia declaring itself a “sanctuary city.” 

State Representative Morgan Cephus (D-Philadelphia), chair of the delegation, also disputed the notion that the migrants bussed in from Texas should be deemed unlawful entrants, despite the fact that they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. He noted that they secured “temporary protective status” by U.S. border agencies. 

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Tennessee Congressman Green, Fellow Committee Members Push for Answers on Mexico Aid

U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-7) is joining other GOP members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in requesting Secretary of State Antony Blinken provide an accounting of the amount, goals and uses of American aid to Mexico during the Biden administration so far.

Last Thursday, committee Ranking Member Michael McCaul (R-TX-10) authored a letter with Green and other Republicans on the panel expressing particular concern to the secretary about the extent to which U.S. taxpayer money has been used to facilitate illegal immigration. Committee members are concerned about the administration having abandoned the previous White House’s policy requiring many asylum seekers at the southern border to remain in Mexico. The Republicans want to know how much the government is spending to bring these migrants into America. 

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Nearly 10,000-Person Caravan Heading to U.S. from Mexico, Saying Biden Will Give Them Asylum

A caravan of thousands of people heading to the U.S. has reportedly left from Tapachula, Mexico, a city located less than 10 miles from the Mexico-Guatemala border.

The timing of their departure was planned to coincide with the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, which began Monday. President Joe Biden, who’s still not been to the U.S. southern border, spoke at the summit Wednesday.

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Florida U.S. Rep. Gaetz Blasts DHS Sec. Mayorkas at Congressional Hearing

Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz blasted Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas at a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing on border security.

In his line of questioning, Gaetz asked Mayorkas about the removal process of 1.2 million people who are in the U.S. illegally who’ve been given deportation orders by judges and haven’t been removed.

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Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs Introduce Resolution to Block Proposed Biden Asylum Rule

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson and Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) introduced a measure to block the Biden administration’s plan for the asylum process.

Biden’s proposal, known as “Procedures for Credible Fear Screening and Consideration of Asylum, Withholding of Removal, and CAT Protection Claims by Asylum Officers,” would allow asylum request to be processed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials, rather than judges.

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Democrat Arizona Secretary of State and Gubernatorial Candidate Katie Hobbs Praises Biden for Removing Title 42 Restrictions at the Border

Katie Hobbs

While many leading Democrats, including both of Arizona’s U.S. Senators, Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema, are upset with the Biden administration’s decision to end the Title 42 COVID-19 restrictions on U.S. borders, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs praised the decision. The Title 42 order, issued by the Centers for Disease Control in March 2020 under the Trump administration, has been used by Customs and Border Protection to prevent 1.7 million migrants from entering the country. They are either sent back to Mexico or on flights to other countries.

When asked by 3TV about the change and how it would affect border security, Hobbs said, “Title 42 should not be a substitute for that. As governor, I will work to, with the federal government, make sure that Arizonans are secure, they need to put more resources and securing the border. We need more resources to address the influx of migrants coming to the border.” 

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Mayor of Yuma Explains Why Migrant Encounters Are Up 2,405 Percent, Offers Solutions

Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls is speaking up about the recent surge of migrants in the Yuma sector on Arizona’s border with Mexico, explaining why it’s occurring and recommending solutions. He believes there are several factors contributing to the 2,405% increase in migrant apprehensions, and says there are both long-term and short-term ways to resolve the problem.

“The ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy of the Trump administration was ordered put back in place by the courts, but that has not fully happened,” he told The Arizona Sun Times. “In 2019 and 2020, there were 50 to 60 migrants a day being returned under the policy. Now, there are only about 10 a day. With 1,000 coming across the border daily now, that’s only 1%.”

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Around 12,400 Migrants Are Waiting to See Whether They’ll Be Allowed to Remain in U.S.

U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas visits with a group of Border Patrol agents and CBP employees as he tours the Del Rio Port of Entry in Del Rio, Texas, September 20, 2021. DHS photo by Benjamin Applebaum

Around 12,400 migrants could be allowed to remain in the U.S., Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said during a White House press conference on Friday.

Border officials relied on Title 42, a Trump-era public health order implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, to expel most migrants from the U.S., according to Mayorkas. Migrants who needed immediate medical attention or who feared torture if they were returned to their home country weren’t subject to removal.

“Approximately 12,400 will have cases heard by an immigration judge to make a determination on whether they’ll be removed or permitted to remain in the United States,” Mayorkas said. If someone is not subject to title 42 expulsion for the three reasons that I explained, acute vulnerability, operational capacity limitations, or a convention against torture exception, then the individual is placed in immigration proceedings.

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Thousands of Migrants Biden Said Would Be Allowed to Enter the U.S. Turned Back to Mexico

Thousands of migrants ordered to remain in Mexico as their asylum cases were processed were returned to the country indefinitely despite the Biden administration admitting most of the remaining cases into the U.S., the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

President Joe Biden ended former President Donald Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) requiring migrants to “Remain in Mexico” and has admitted thousands of the 26,000 migrants with active cases into the U.S., the AP reported. Judges have terminated proceedings in nearly 6,700 MPP cases, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).

“Things have changed under the Biden administration and we’ve seen a little over 8,000 individuals previously in MPP have their cases transferred out of an MPP court, which suggests that they have been allowed into the US under the more standard asylum processing procedures,” Syracuse University Assistant Research Professor Dr. Austin Kocher told the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday.

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Biden Ends Trump-Era Deals with Central American Countries to Reduce Asylum Claims at US Border

Arrangements made between the U.S. and three Central American countries to curb the number of asylum claims at the U.S. border were suspended Saturday, the Biden administration announced.

The Asylum Cooperative Agreements that limited some asylum seekers from making claims in the U.S. and required them to instead seek asylum in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras were suspended and scheduled to be terminated with an executive order signed Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced.

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Federal Judge Blocks New Criminal Disqualifiers to Asylum

A federal judge on Thursday blocked a Trump administration rule about to take effect that would have put up new roadblocks for asylum-seekers convicted of a variety of crimes.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco said the rule “sweeps too broadly” and was unnecessary because current federal law already includes a host of disqualifying crimes such as drug trafficking, money laundering and counterfeiting.

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Top Trump Adviser Wants More Nations to Field Asylum Claims

One of President Donald Trump’s top priorities on immigration if he wins a second term would be to use agreements with Central American governments as models to get countries around the world to field asylum claims from people seeking refuge in the United States, a top adviser said.

Stephen Miller, a key architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said Friday the agreements would help stop “asylum fraud, asylum shopping and asylum abuse on a global scale.”

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Gov. Bill Lee Silent on Report His Decision Allows Federal Government to Send Middle East Refugees to Tennessee That Australia Has Refused

Gov. Bill Lee’s decision on December 18 to say yes to more refugees in Tennessee allows the federal government to resettle refugees from any country it wants into the state, including an estimated 300 to 720  refugees from Middle East countries that the government of Australia has refused to accept.

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Michigan A.G. Nessel Joined Two Legal Actions Against Trump Immigration Rules in December

  Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined legal actions against two immigration-related rules from President Donald Trump’s administration in December. According to a statement from Nessel’s office, Michigan’s chief law enforcement officer has joined Democratic attorneys general from around the country in challenging Trump’s effort to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals and a rule that will divert asylum-seekers to different countries. In regards to the latter, Nessel said the rule will send asylum-seekers to South American countries that have signed asylum cooperative agreements with the U.S., such as Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. “This interim final rule ignores the vital economic contributions of immigrants throughout our state and this country and blatantly disregards the fact that asylum-seekers are already seeking protection from dangerous circumstances,” Attorney General Nessel said in a statement. “Forcing them into countries with some of the highest homicide rates in the world and providing no safeguards against family separation is not only counterproductive but pushes asylum-seekers further into the danger they’ve fought so hard to flee.” Her office joined 19 other state attorneys general in submitting a comment letter to the Department of Homeland Security to oppose the new rule. She also expressed concern…

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Immigration Law Reform Institute’s Dale Wilcox Joins the Tennessee Star Report Says ‘You Can’t Assimilate the Entire World’

In an interview on The Tennessee Star Report Michael Patrick Leahy – live broadcast Friday morning on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Leahy was live from Washington, D.C. and spoke with Dale Wilcox, Executive Director, and General Counsel for the Immigration Law Reform Institute.

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Acting Director of Citizenship and Immigration Ken Cuccinelli Joins the Tennesseee Star Report to Talk About His Recent Regulation Victory on Asylum

On Thursday morning’s The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Leahy was live from radio row in Washington, D.C. and welcomed Ken Cuccinelli who is currently working in the Trump administration as acting Director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services.

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Commentary: Can President Trump’s New Asylum Rules Stem the Illegal Tide?

by Rachel Bovard   Illegal immigration numbers remain at levels triple that of previous years, and Congress continues to bicker, foot stomp, other otherwise ignore the problem. In the face of this, the Trump Administration released its latest attempt to bring the border crisis under control. Under new rules issued last week, migrants will now be required to seek asylum in at least one country they pass through on their way north. In other words, to qualify for asylum in the United States, Hondurans and Salvadorans would first have to apply for – and be denied – asylum in Guatemala or Mexico. The response from critics was predictable. “These new regulations are illegal and flout our asylum laws,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) tweeted on Tuesday. In a press release, the ACLU stated that the “Trump Administration is trying to unilaterally reverse our country’s legal and moral commitment to protect those fleeing danger,” right after they vowed to file a lawsuit to fight the change. U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, described the regulations as “xenophobic and racist.” None of them, however, acknowledged a key feature of the new rules: they put the United States in compliance with exactly the way…

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Omar Silent on New Claims That She Has a Different Real Name and Entered Country Fraudulently

  A bombshell report released Thursday claims that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) entered the country fraudulently in 1995 as a member of the “Omar” family, which allegedly isn’t her real family. The article was published Thursday at Powerline by David Steinberg, formerly an editor of PJ Media who has written extensively on Omar over the past three years. In his article, Steinberg claims: “In 1995, Ilhan entered the United States as a fraudulent member of the ‘Omar’ family. That is not her family. The Omar family is a second, unrelated family which was being granted asylum by the United States. The Omars allowed Ilhan, her genetic sister Sahra, and her genetic father Nur Said to use false names to apply for asylum as members of the Omar family.” He goes on to claim that Omar’s real name, before applying for asylum, was Ilhan Nur Said Elmi. The family split up in 1995 when three of her siblings were granted asylum by the United Kingdom, including Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, whom Omar allegedly married in 2009 and divorced in 2017. As The Minnesota Sun has previously reported, this alleged marriage to her brother occurred at a time of massive immigration fraud. Steinberg cites…

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President Donald Trump’s Mexico Deal Has ‘Teeth’ to Fix Border Crisis, Rep. Green Tells Fox News

  U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-07) spoke about the U.S.-Mexico border deal and the border crisis Sunday with Eric Shawn of Fox News. Video from the interview is available here. Green said that while immigrants are suffering, the border crisis is affecting Americans in terms of money and that 300 Americans die every week from overdose of drugs like heroin. Almost all fentanyl comes from across the southern border, and he cited data from Doctors Without Borders that many of these women immigrants are being sexually assaulted. Democrats are more interested in creating talking points for the 2020 presidential race than they are in helping people, Green said. Green also talked about the $4.5 billion appropriations request made by HHS and DHS as well as the U.S.-Mexico border deal President Donald Trump’s been touting backed up by threats of tariffs. Trump “added teeth” to the deal, which makes it more likely to work, Green said. The policy also would end the “Flores Agreement.” Under that agreement, if an asylum-seeker “grabs a child, they’ve got a visa to get into the United States,” Green said. More of his interview can be found at the link above. President Trump last week…

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Analysis: The Exploitation of the U.S. Asylum System

by Andrew Kerr   Tens of thousands of apprehended migrants from the Central American countries driving the border crisis exploit loopholes in the immigration system by making false asylum claims, according to data, experts and surveys. The loopholes allow “people with suspect asylum claims … to make their way into the interior of the United States and disappear,” one expert told The Daily Caller News Foundation. Data shows only about half of the migrants from those countries who claim asylum actually file a formal application after being let into the U.S. Asylum is a status reserved for individuals who face persecution in their homeland, but less than 4% of migrants from the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras exclusively said they were fleeing violence, while 72% cited economic conditions as their sole reason for leaving, according to a 2017 survey of deported migrants by the Migration in the Southern Border of Mexico (EMIF). Just 10% cited both violence and economic conditions as motivating factors. “The vast majority of current Central American asylum seekers — by their own admission — are economic migrants who do not qualify for asylum, because they are not subject to persecution on the basis of…

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Senator Lindsey Graham’s Immigration Bill Aims to Fix the Issues Fueling the Border Crisis

by Jason Hopkins   South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced an immigration bill that addresses numerous issues law enforcement officials say is driving the U.S.-Mexico border crisis. Speaking at a Wednesday press conference, Graham outlined the four main points of his proposal, addressing the “broken and outdated” immigration laws that attracts illegal immigration from Central America. Overall, the bill calls for doubling the number of immigration judges, allowing those in ICE custody to be held for as long as 100 days, more readily deport unaccompanied children, and require those seeking asylum to do so in their home countries. “What I’m trying to do is explain how to stop the flow from Central America, to regain control of our border, and stop a humanitarian crisis that I think is just going to get worse over time,” Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said during the press conference. Migrant children, wether they arrive at the border alone or with a family, cannot be detained for longer than 20 days. Leaders within the Department of Homeland Security have long urged Congress to extend this timeline, claiming it forces them to release illegal migrants into the U.S. while their cases are process. An extension to…

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Thousands of Alleged Asylum-Seekers Booted Out of US Under Trump’s ‘Remain In Mexico’ Policy

by Jason Hopkins   Thousands of Central American migrants have been sent back to Mexico after lodging an asylum claim, a result of President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” directive. Over 5,000 asylum seekers from Central America’s Northern Triangle region — El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala — have been sent back to Mexico as they wait for their claims to go through the U.S. immigration court system, according to a Mexican government official who spoke to CBS. The number, if accurate, would indicate a sharp rise of the 3,700 asylum seekers the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed were booted earlier in May. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation. “It has many implications,” the Mexican official stated to CBS, speaking about “Remain in Mexico,” which is also known referred to as the “Migrant Protection Protocols” program. “However, with the new immigration policy, all the tools we have to apply to safeguard the physical and moral integrity of foreigners must be applied, regardless of condition or nationality.” The program, which began in late 2018, prohibits non-Mexican immigrants from immediately entering the U.S. interior after claiming asylum at the southern border. Instead, the directive requires them to wait in…

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Trump Attorney General Barr Cracks Down on Phony Asylum Seekers

by CHQ staff   Attorney General William Barr has ruled that some illegal aliens who are about to be deported must be held without bond as their deportation cases play out. According to a Department of Justice decision document released on Tuesday, Barr concluded that illegals who fit certain criteria after applying for asylum will not be eligible for release during the deportation process. The decision reverses a George W. Bush-era ruling dating back to 2005 that allowed bond to be instituted if the deportation subjects could demonstrate a legitimate fear of either persecution or danger should they leave the United States. “An alien who is transferred from expedited removal proceedings to full removal proceedings after establishing a credible fear of persecution or torture is ineligible for release on bond,” Barr wrote. “Such an alien must be detained until his removal proceedings conclude, unless he is granted parole.” “I order that, unless DHS paroles the respondent under section 212(d)(5)(A) of the [The Immigration and Nationality] Act, he must be detained until his removal proceedings conclude,” Barr wrote. Attorney General Barr’s decision has attracted broad support, even from more moderate Republicans, such as New York’s Representative Peter King (NY-2). Attorney General William Barr…

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Commentary: Congress Has a Little Time to Get Immigration Right

by Rachel Bovard   After refusing for weeks to negotiate over border security “until the government is open,” the bluff has been called on congressional Democrats. Congress has until February 15 to craft a border security package ahead of what could be yet another partial government shutdown. Talks among the 17 lawmakers appointed to the committee assigned with drafting a proposal have begun, though details remain scarce. Top Democrat Representative Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) told reporters that “everything is on the table.” President Trump has said that the conference committee is wasting its time if it’s not considering a wall. For those claiming that the recent 35-day shutdown resulted in no substantive achievement, the conference committee may well represent the one opportunity for substantive immigration reform from this Congress—and perhaps for the next decade. It is critically important that Congress get it right. A border wall must be a critical component of the package—and for evidence of why it’s necessary, look no further than stunning videos taken by Representative Chip Roy (R-Texas). The freshman member of Congress visited just one unsecured sector of the border in McAllen, Texas, and watched as truckloads of migrants casually strolled into the United States. McAllen is in the Rio Grande Valley sector, approximately 100 miles of…

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Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Blocks Trump Effort to Deny Asylum for Illegal Aliens

by Kevin Daley   The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a temporary restraining order against a Trump administration policy that denies asylum to illegal aliens. The 2-1 decision is the latest setback the 9th Circuit has rendered to President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. “Just as we may not, as we are often reminded, ‘legislate from the bench,’ neither may the executive legislate from the oval office,” Judge Jay Bybee wrote for the majority. Former President George W. Bush appointed Bybee to the bench, and the judge has a conservative reputation. Read the 9th Circuit’s full decision here. U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar entered an injunction against President Donald Trump’s new asylum rules on Nov. 19. In effect, the reforms withhold asylum from illegal aliens, though foreign nationals who present for inspection at designated ports of entry remain eligible for legal status. Bybee sympathetically notes the rules were meant to address “a staggering increase in asylum applications” between 2008 and 2018. Trump issued the new guidelines as several thousand caravan migrants congregated near the U.S. border in Tijuana, Mexico. The 9th Circuit panel largely agreed with Tigar’s earlier decision, concluding that Trump’s policy violates the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which Congress…

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Illegal Border Crossings are Down Because Migrants are Applying for Asylum Instead

by Jason Hopkins   While the number of apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border have gone down, applications for asylum are reaching all-time highs. Around 304,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended at the southwest border during the 2017 fiscal year, a dramatic plunge from the 1.6 million apprehensions recorded in 2000. At the same time, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recored 78,564 requests for asylum in 2017, a major increase from the 13,880 requests made in 2012. These numbers have only increased. During this fiscal year, the USCIS recorded a record-setting 99,035 asylum requests — 62,609 of which included Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Hondurans. “We’ve never seen this many people coming to the border to seek asylum,” Faye Hipsman, a former analyst with the Migration Policy Institute, told The Wall Street Journal. The rise in asylum applications come at a time when the White House is working to reform the process. “My administration is finalizing a plan to end the rampant abuse of our asylum system to halt the dangerous influx and to establish control over America’s sovereign borders,” President Donald Trump announced in early November, around the same time a caravan of Central Americans was heading toward the U.S. border.…

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Communist Group Encourages Migrants to ‘Remove’ Trump

by Luke Rosiak   The caravan of migrants that traveled from Honduras to Mexico includes foreign nationals pledging to abolish the U.S. immigration authorities, openly discussing their intent to illegally enter the U.S., and reading communist literature about overthrowing President Donald Trump, according to an in-depth report by journalists on the ground in Tijuana for the Epoch Times. It said a Los Angeles-based group called Al Otro Lado (“To the other side”) is guiding migrants and its litigation director, Erika Pinheiro, is on the scene telling the migrants how to make sure they don’t just get into the U.S., but get as many benefits from its government as possible. But she advised that criminals and previous deportees in the group can still get a different status, called “withholding of removal status,” in which “you won’t be deported but it doesn’t have many benefits.” The night many migrants rushed the border, they received a flier by a California-based Communist group known as BAMN — whose slogan is “Trump must go or be removed BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY” — saying “Open it up or we’ll shut it down! Everyone must be let in!” “Let’s organize active solidarity and defense against any nationalist or government attack,” another flier from the…

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Dr. Carol M. Swain Commentary: Is President Trump’s Asylee Policy for Central American Caravanners Unconstitutional?

by Dr. Carol M. Swain   A federal judge in San Francisco has blocked President Trump’s November 8 directive stipulating that requests for asylum must be made at a port of entry. The judge’s action follows a jaw-dropping November 1 lawsuit from lawyers representing 12 Honduran migrants. They filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia opposing President Trump’s announced asylum policy. The petition accused the President of unconstitutional abuse of the caravanners’ rights to exercise “their lawful right to seek asylum in the United States.” At the time, the plaintiffs were more than 500 miles from the U.S. border. Are their claims valid? Let’s look at the facts. First, do the Central American migrants meet the basic criteria for protection under the existing asylum statute? Second, has the President overstepped his authority by issuing a directive that applicants must apply at a port of entry? If both answers are no, then perhaps President Trump is correct in his handling of the matter. Then we would owe him a national thank-you. If the answers are yes, we would have a major problem of a president overstepping his authority. Reacting to what he described as an invasion, President…

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Judge Stops Trump Asylum Ban as Migrant Caravan Nears

by Kevin Daley   A federal judge in California issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Trump administration’s new asylum rules early Tuesday morning. U.S. District Court Judge Jon Tigar said that Congress extended asylum eligibility to all new comers, and the president may not impose contrary terms. “Whatever the scope of the president’s authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden,” Tigar’s decision reads. Tigar is an Obama appointee to the federal trial court in San Francisco. President Donald Trump issued an order on Nov. 9 denying asylum for all foreign nationals who enter the country illegally for a 90-day period. The ACLU challenged the proclamation in court, arguing it violates the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Federal law provides that “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 applicable statutes. That language…

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Migrant Caravan Triggers Protests in Tijuana

Hundreds of Tijuana residents congregated around a monument in an affluent section of the city south of California on Sunday to protest the thousands of Central American migrants who have arrived via caravan in hopes of a new life in the U.S. Tensions have built as nearly 3,000 migrants from the caravan poured into Tijuana in recent days after more than a month on the road, and with many more months ahead of them while they seek asylum. The federal government estimates the number of migrants could soon swell to 10,000. U.S. border inspectors are processing only about 100 asylum claims a day at Tijuana’s main crossing to San Diego. Asylum seekers register their names in a tattered notebook managed by migrants themselves that had more than 3,000 names even before the caravan arrived. On Sunday, displeased Tijuana residents waved Mexican flags, sang the Mexican national anthem and chanted “Out! Out!” in front of a statue of the Aztec ruler Cuauhtemoc, 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) from the U.S. border. They accused the migrants of being ungrateful and a danger to Tijuana. They also complained about how the caravan forced its way into Mexico, calling it an “invasion.” And they voiced…

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Trump Issues Proclamation Revoking Asylum Eligibility From Migrants Who Cross Southwest Border Illegally

by Will Racke   President Donald Trump issued a proclamation on Friday that makes anyone caught crossing the southwest border illegally ineligible for asylum, a major change to U.S. immigration policy that seeks to reverse the rising tide of migration from Central America. The order, which takes effect midnight Saturday, suspends for 90 days the entry of any alien across the U.S.-Mexico border, with broad exceptions for people who present themselves for inspection at ports of entry and legal permanent residents. When combined with a new asylum regulation issued Thursday, the practical effect of the proclamation is to limits asylum protections to only those migrants who present themselves at U.S. ports of entry. Administration officials say the ultimate aim of the policy is to channel asylum seekers away from illegal border crossings, which have surged this year amid a wave of Central American migrants. Migrants who present themselves at the ports of entry will still be eligible to pursue asylum claims under the new policy. Additionally, migrants already in the U.S. will still be able to seek humanitarian protections pursuant to “withholding” of removal and convention against torture provisions, which use a higher “reasonable fear” standard. [ RELATED: ‘Non-Meritorious’ Central…

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Commentary: The Migrant ‘Caravan’ Marching Northbound To Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas, and What The U.S. Constitution Has To Say About It

The United States Constitution does contain a few references relative to immigration and naturalization as well as to persons seeking to enter the United States in contravention of its laws — whether violently or non-violently and whether singly or in the form of a human tsunami. In its Article I, Section 8, Clause 4, the Constitution specifically grants Congress the power “To establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization….” By expressly allocating this capacity to Congress, the Constitution seeks to prevent the confusion which would inevitably result if an individual state could itself bestow U.S. citizenship upon a person not born within the boundaries of that — or any other — state. Construing Clause 4, the United States Supreme Court, in the 1892 case of Boyd v. Nebraska ex rel. Thayer, defined “naturalization” as “…the act of adopting a foreigner, and clothing him with the privileges of a native [U.S.] citizen.” In Clause 11 of that same Article I, Section 8, the Constitution authorizes Congress “To declare War…and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water….” Interpreting Clause 11, the High Court ruled in the 1795 case of Penhallow v. Doane that the war power of the United States government is…

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