The Simple, Instant, Humane Solution for the Migrant Crisis: Require Asylum Requests to Be Made at U.S. Consulates in the Country of Residence, Not at Our Border, Just Like Tourist Visas.
It’s high time for the United States to end the migrant crisis at our southern border by requiring all asylum applications to be made at U.S. consulates in the country of residence, not at a U.S. border, the same requirement as for tourist visas. (If there is no U.S. consulate in the country of residence, then the application can be made at a U.S. consulate in any other country.)
Requiring that all asylum applications be made at a U.S. consulate in the country of residence not only instantly ends the migrant crisis at our southern border, it also stops asylum seekers from making long, arduous, dangerous, and often expensive treks from their homeland, and is therefore humane. All reasonable, logical Democrats and Republicans will agree to this administrative reform to our asylum law, made through a national emergency executive order issued by President Biden. (Many ignore that our asylum law only applies to individuals persecuted by their own government, not to individuals fleeing poverty or crime who constitute by far the largest category of asylum seekers.) Biden’s own reelection may well hinge on this asylum application reform, the only effective, rapid solution for illegal immigration and the migrant crisis. Being an administrative change, no legislation is needed to implement it.
Apart from immediately solving the border crisis by requiring all asylum requests to be made in the country of residence, Biden should have the vision and conviction to organize a major Peace Corps effort to help the developing nations of Latin America become economically and socially prosperous, through creating excellent public schools with an enlightened curriculum and through infrastructure investments. That would not only remove the roots of the migrant crisis, it would lead to prosperous neighbors, a great economic benefit for our country.
Biden must keep in mind that for over a century we have had annual quotas for immigration set by Congress, and no one objected. That policy must return. There is nothing immoral about nations determining how many immigrants they wish to admit any given year. No rational nation has a highly controversial “open borders” policy, which destabilizes socially and politically, while dangerously increasing the number of political demagogues and facilitating the entry of spies and saboteurs.
The asylum application reform must be accompanied by strict enforcement at our borders: any migrant seeking entry to our country without valid asylum papers issued by a U.S. consulate would be instantly and automatically denied entry, the same as happens with tourists arriving at a port of entry without a valid visa issued by a U.S. consulate in the country of residence. As for migrants caught inside our borders having escaped border control, the absurd policy of “catch and release” must be replaced by “catch, detain, deport” along with forfeiture of right to asylum.
Without delay, President Biden must be decisive and issue a national emergency executive order for asylum application reform if he wants to end the migrant crisis and be reelected, saving us from an autocrat. Meanwhile the Democrats must drop “open borders” to win congressional elections. Biden must be a strong, proactive leader and stop waiting for obstructionist Republicans to cooperate. (N.B. If the asylum application reform is insufficient to stop the migrant crisis, then “the Wall” must be completed and border policing augmented.)
January 12, 2024
© Edward Sonnino 2024
