Immigrants wait to be processed at a U.S. Border Patrol transit center after they crossed the border from Mexico on Dec. 20 in Eagle Pass. A late-year surge of migrants crossing the U.S.southern border has overwhelmed U.S. immigration officials.
A Texas National Guard soldier counts a group of immigrants who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on Dec. 20 in Eagle Pass. A late-year surge of migrants crossing the U.S. southern border has overwhelmed U.S. immigration officials.
Texas National Guard troops look on as immigrants change into dry clothes after wading through the Rio Grande from Mexico early on Dec. 20 in Eagle Pass. A late-year surge of migrants crossing the U.S. southern border has overwhelmed U.S. immigration officials.
Immigrants walk towards a U.S. Border Patrol transit center after wading through the Rio Grande from Mexico early on Dec. 20 in Eagle Pass.
A Texas National Guard soldier installs additional razor wire at the U.S.-Mexico border on Dec. 20 in Eagle Pass.
A Texas National Guard soldier speaks with immigrants after they waded through the Rio Grande from Mexico on Dec. 20 in Eagle Pass.
Border Patrol agents temporarily suspended train traffic from Mexico, slowed traffic at commercial checkpoints and are still struggling to cope with 10,000 migrants crossing into Texas every day.
With new migrant caravans bringing thousands of people to Texas, President Joe Biden and Republicans in Congress need to agree to new border policies quickly. Too many people are flooding the border, straining humanitarian resources and triggering a political backlash.
Little is more tragic than women, children and the elderly fleeing destroyed homes, with bullets whizzing over their heads and their meager possessions strapped to their backs.
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RELATED: Feds close two Texas border bridges to fight smuggling of migrants in rail cars
I’ve watched refugees flow into Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi. In 1996, I drove down 15 miles of a Rwandan road filled with 400,000 refugees fleeing Zaire. Religious codes and international law guarantee a right to asylum. But mass migration is breaking immigration systems from the Rio Grande to the Mediterranean Sea.
Customs and Border Patrol intercepted 2.4 million people along the Southwest border in fiscal year 2023, creating a humanitarian and law enforcement crisis on the Texas frontier. Ending the migrant surge requires addressing push factors such as fear and pull factors such as jobs.
International law requires nations to grant asylum to people fleeing “a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” U.S. law does not grant asylum to migrants who fear crime, suffer from hunger or want a better life.
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Determining who is fleeing persecution is difficult. Congress has not significantly updated asylum laws or regulations since the advent of the internet. Today, websites coach migrants on how to apply for refuge.
Around the world, immigration policy has become a convenient political bludgeon. Conservative Republicans use migrants to stoke anger and raise money. Gov. Greg Abbott’s busing of immigrants to Democratic cities and his promotion of anti-constitutional laws raise his prospects.
No serious Democrat supports open borders but most oppose new rules for asylum seekers. Biden knows his constituents expect humane treatment of border-crossers, but a majority of Americans recognize the current system is unviable.
Biden and Republican leaders are in talks that offer an opportunity to impose legal, common-sense solutions if they choose not to play games with people’s lives.
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Congress should raise the bar for the Department of Homeland Security to grant migrants entry pending a formal asylum hearing. The current rules require Border Patrol agents to grant temporary entry to too many people, and Republicans correctly argue this loose policy is a pull factor for migrants.
A bipartisan but more controversial proposal would refuse asylum to anyone who passed through a safe third country without first applying for asylum. The Circumvention of Legal Pathways Rule is consistent with international law but opposed by progressives who say migrants are not safe in Mexico.
The most radical GOP House members want to take away the president’s prerogatives in emergencies and impose regulations that violate international law. These poison pills are intended to blow up negotiations and wound Biden ahead of the general election.
Keeping the crisis alive may help former President Donald Trump’s chances for reelection but would hurt migrants and our economy. Failing to strike a deal would further disillusion Americans who want common-sense solutions that discourage economic migrants from gaming asylum laws.
We are not alone; every wealthy nation faces similar challenges. Last week, European Union negotiators completed a three-year overhaul of immigration policy, which includes a fast-tracked asylum procedure but will also turn away more applicants.
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In Asia, 10.7 million people are on the move, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reported. In addition to refugees fleeing fighting in Afghanistan and Myanmar, millions of others are seeking refuge after severe storms destroyed their homes, an ominous sign of border crises to come as climate change worsens.
The world adopted the U.N. Refugee Convention in 1951 after numerous governments sent Jewish refugees back to Nazi-controlled Europe ahead of World War II. The world promised never again to send people to their deaths.
No one, not you or me or anyone else, will sit idle if they see an opportunity to escape death or reduce their family’s suffering. Expecting otherwise is unrealistic, especially when television and film show the easiness of life in a wealthy country.
Today, disasters in small countries reverberate for tens of thousands of miles. The ultimate solution is for wealthy nations to reduce push factors by deploying political and economic aid and improving living standards.
A fairer world is the only solution.
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Chris Tomlinson, named 2021 columnist of the year by the Texas Managing Editors, writes commentary about money, politics and life in Texas. Sign up for his “Tomlinson’s Take” newsletter at HoustonChronicle.com/TomlinsonNewsletter or Expressnews.com/TomlinsonNewsletter.
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