Quote Originally Posted by Lewkowski View Post
Generally yes, asylum should not be a catch all for vague concerns over potential violence. The simple fact is, Mexico and much of Central America is a shit hole. Nearly every single person there lives in poverty compared to the American standard of living. Should we allow EVERYONE to come in simply because their country is a shitty place? That's ridiculous.

By simply following the logic you must either give everyone who wants it asylum or you have to restrict to specific provable concerns that the powers of a country are persecuting people. The reality is that much of the immigration is economic in nature NOT fear of government or even cartel reprisal.
Quote Originally Posted by Lewkowski View Post
First step to see that it is a good faith effort is to report to the nearest harbor/coast guard/even local PD and turn themselves in. Not this bull shit of 'let me go hide among the population, get a job and then when I get caught I claim asylum.'
What's ridiculous is your attitude toward asylum-seekers, then supporting it with ignorance.

The first step in determining whether someone is an economic migrant vs a refugee seeking asylum is done by interviews with border control agents. There's been a huge backlog for years due to under-funding and insufficient staff. We still only have about 350 judges to hear the claims (that pass the interview stage). That's why "catch-and-release" came about.

And now we have desperate families with children being turned away from the *legal/designated* points of entry, being told to "come back in a couple of weeks" because the line is too long. It's no wonder some might try to enter the US another way, when we've made it nearly impossible to do it the *legal* way. Sadly, it looks like the Trump administration shares your attitude. They don't want to add more immigration judges to review asylum cases. Because, ya know, they're all just taking advantage of us, lying and faking their way into our country.

But they are willing to spend millions of dollars building internment camps on military bases, and will send Dept. of Defense lawyers to prosecute toddlers, after having separated them from their moms.


Interestingly enough, historically Cubans who did make that trek have a better claim of real asylum because the government was persecuting and imprisoning dissidents.
FYI Cubans had a "better" asylum claim because US policy gave them special status. It's changed over the decades so keep up:

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/arti...-united-states