Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times |
The forces driving the unprecedented surge in family units and minors at the southern border were in the spotlight last week, as many of the nation's leading newspapers published reports within days of each other that paint a clearer picture of how loose "credible fear" standards, the "Flores" settlement, and lack of detention space and asylum judges have created loopholes in the system that caravans and smugglers have adapted to.
"A trend toward family migration from Central America that began when Barack Obama was president has endured, after temporarily dipping during Mr. Trump's first year in office...."In 2008, just under 5,000 applicants claimed they had a credible fear of persecution, the first legal step toward obtaining asylum, to avoid being returned to their homeland. Last year, nearly 100,000 claimed a credible fear." -- The New York Times, March 5, 2019
Polling indicates that American voters support catch-and-release even less than they do family separations, yet that is the de facto policy of the United States.
To the administration's credit, the White House has called for congressional reforms to close these loopholes, but with Trump himself focused on the wall - and the media focused on Trump - there has been little pressure on Congress to act.
Predictably, the surge in large groups of people traveling with children toward the U.S.-Mexico border has accelerated.Read the rest of the story HERE.
If you like what you see, please "Like" us on Facebook either here or here. Please follow us on Twitter here.
No comments:
Post a Comment