More and more immigrants seek asylum and do not cross the US -Mexico border wall

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More and more immigrants seek asylum and do not cross the US -Mexico border wall

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The decline in traditional Mexican border crossers coming to the United States for better jobs has been accompanied by a rise in Central Americans — mostly from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras — arriving at the border to request asylum protection. Over the past several years, apprehensions of non-Mexicans at the border, mostly from Central America, have met or exceeded apprehensions of Mexicans. The number of asylum requests from those arriving at the border has also soared in recent years, from just 22,000 in 2011 to 140,000 by 2015. Arrests of unaccompanied minors and family units have fluctuated, hitting nearly 140,000 in FY 2014, falling to 80,000 in FY 2015, and rising again to nearly 140,000 in FY 2016, but they have been consistently far higher than they were a decade ago (CBP 2016b).

With Congress gearing up to consider budget proposals from the Trump administration that seek an additional $2.6 billion for border security, including construction of new physical barriers, the debate is long overdue. In particular, Congress should be taking a careful look at the incremental gains that might come from additional spending on border enforcement. The evidence suggests that deterrence through enforcement, despite its successes to date in reducing illegal entry across the border, is producing diminishing returns. There are three primary reasons. First, arrivals at the border are increasingly made up of asylum seekers from Central America rather than traditional economic migrants from Mexico; this is a population that is both harder to deter because of the dangers they face at home, and in many cases not appropriate to deter because the United States has legal obligations to consider serious requests for asylum. Second, the majority of additions to the US unauthorized population is now arriving on legal visas and then overstaying; enforcement at the southern border does nothing to respond to this challenge. And finally, among Mexican migrants, a growing percentage of the repeat border crossers are parents with children left behind in the United States, a population that is far harder to deter than young economic migrants

But most importantly, many, if not most, crossers never tried to evade capture. They just walked up to the fence (which is mostly in the United States) and asked to be arrested, so they can try to obtain asylum.

Child migration from Central America to the United States, which surged in 2014, has also been undeterred by enforcement (in fact most unaccompanied minors turn themselves in to border agents), as tens of thousands of children from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala spontaneously arrive at the U.S. border with Mexico to claim asylum, many knowing they would be admitted into the U.S. pending removal hearings

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Claims that US - Mexico border wall is ineffective in stopping illegal immigration

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Claims that US - Mexico border wall is ineffective in stopping illegal immigration

US Politics

But most importantly, many, if not most, crossers never tried to evade capture. They just walked up to the fence (which is mostly in the United States) and asked to be arrested, so they can try to obtain asylum.

US Politics

Child migration from Central America to the United States, which surged in 2014, has also been undeterred by enforcement (in fact most unaccompanied minors turn themselves in to border agents), as tens of thousands of children from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala spontaneously arrive at the U.S. border with Mexico to claim asylum, many knowing they would be admitted into the U.S. pending removal hearings

US Politics