Report: Mexico's Congress Urges U.S. to Facilitate Asylum for Its Own Citizens

Mexico’s congress passed a resolution urging the U.S. to facilitate asylum cases involving Mexican citizens.  

On Jan. 15, KHOU 11 News in Houston, Texas reported that Mexico’s congress wants the U.S. to ease up on granting asylum to Mexican citizens who claim to be victims of violence in their homeland.  

“This is a game changer,” Carlos Spector, an immigration attorney and activist in El Paso, told KHOU 11 News. “This is the first time in the history of a country that we know of that a Congress has come out and said facilitate the asylum claims of our citizens because we are incapable of defending them.”  

The legislation was introduced by Mexico’s Sen. Maria de Guadalupe Calderon Hinojosa, former Mexican president Felipe Calderon’s sister.   

Last August, Breitbart News, citing U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) figures, reported, “The asylum system appears to be a magnet for abuse by those who make a claim to get into the country and then vanish.”  

Breitbart News found that in 2012, 66 percent of the immigrants making asylum claims did not appear in immigration court after being released on bond or their own recognizance. 

“The numbers from the DoJ indicate a growing crisis in the system the United States uses to grant asylum to international refugees, as the immigration courts are overwhelmed by cases from Mexican immigrants that rarely result in asylum being granted,” stated the report.  

“In raw numbers, Mexican immigrants made 9,206 asylum claims in 2012 but were only found by the immigration courts to have 126 claims worthy of being granted,” added Breitbart News.