Lies on immigration

In the massive flood of falsehoods and exaggerations that Donald Trump has injected into the political discourse in this country, no subject has been more distorted than the debate over immigration.
The portrait created by Trump, of an invasion of untold millions released from prisons and insane asylums across the globe, causing untold mayhem on America’s streets, is simply nonsense.
When it comes to immigration, there are three primary ways we’re seeing it occur. It can happen through long-established processes under which people can apply for entry into this country, or through a refugee or asylum application, which is how most migrants, particularly at the southern border have gained entry in recent years. There are undoubtedly some illegal crossings that occur at various points along our border, and those people are either interdicted somewhere after crossing (and become part of official statistics), or make their way into the country, usually for work, without ever being detected. We don’t know how many evade authorities or who they are, but this has been true under every administration. Illegal crossings may well have been higher under Trump since the administration was more restrictive of legal avenues for entering the country than past presidents.
The increase in immigration that we experienced in the early part of the Biden administration was due primarily to a sharp increase in asylum applications following the lifting of COVID restrictions at the border. By Trump’s telling, these are “illegals,” but under U.S. law asylum seekers can come into the U.S. legally. That’s right, these are not “illegal” immigrants — they have a right under U.S. law to seek asylum and they will continue to have that right unless Congress changes our immigration laws.
And they are vetted before they can enter the country, including verification of their identities, criminal background checks, and the collection of biometric data. Trump’s claim that countries are emptying their prisons and sending criminals to the U.S., and we’re just letting them in, is pure fiction.
Most asylum seekers will eventually be deported, but not until they have had their chance to make their case before a judge. Like it or not, that’s the system that our laws have established because here in America most of us still believe in due process. Unfortunately, because our asylum courts aren’t adequately funded, asylum seekers can wait years before their case hits the docket.
And contrary to claims by Trump and others, the overwhelming majority of asylum seekers released from detention do show up for all of their hearings. According to a study by the nonpartisan American Immigration Council, which reviewed nearly three million cases, fully 83 percent of asylum seekers who were released pending their court action, attended all of their subsequent court hearings, and 96 percent of those represented by an attorney showed up. And for those who did not appear initially, it was most often due to inadequate notice.
The bipartisan immigration reform measure developed earlier this year would have, among other things, provided more resources to hire additional judges to hear asylum claims in order to speed up the removal process. But Donald Trump, who has exploited fears of immigrants since he launched his first campaign in 2015, wanted nothing to do with a solution, so he convinced GOP members of Congress to scuttle the deal. And were he to return to the White House, the chances for a bipartisan deal to address immigration would be close to nil.
The increase in asylum and refugee claims is not surprising. We’ve seen economic collapse in populous and authoritarian countries, like Venezuela, as well as Cuba. Climate change is fueling famines and other impacts that are forcing people to flee their homes, and they aren’t just coming to the U.S. Most Western countries are seeing rising numbers of immigrants as well.
While President Biden has more recently sharply limited the ability of individuals to seek asylum through an executive order (a move that has sent entries plummeting), Biden’s order is already facing a court challenge. Similar orders imposed by President Trump in 2018 were tossed by the courts as illegal, a fate which Biden’s order is also likely to face.
While Trump claims that he had immigration under control, we actually saw higher numbers of entries in the first three years of his administration than we had seen under Obama, a surge that didn’t end until COVID gave the administration legal avenues to close off most entries.
If Americans want to address the issues at the border, it is going to take congressional action, the kind that Donald Trump blocked earlier this year. As with everything Trump does, his strategy leaves America more chaotic, more divided, and filled with unnecessary fear and anger. In other words, the perfect conditions for an authoritarian takeover. Americans should think long and hard about their vote on Nov. 5. Our democracy depends on it.