U.S. Creates Sanctuaries for Migrants in Latin American Countries

SAN DIEGO, CA - APRIL 29: Pro-migrant caravan demonstrators rally at the west end of the U
Bill Wechter/Getty Images
Neil Munro

A new regulation will allow U.S. border officers to send asylum seekers to several Latin American countries instead of being released into the United States.

Reuters posted a report saying:

In a fast-track regulation set to publish in the Federal Register on Tuesday, the administration has created a framework that will allow asylum seekers to be sent to other nations that have negotiated bilateral agreements to accept them.

Previously, officials in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump have argued that migrants with a valid need for asylum should seek protection in the first “safe” country where they have the chance to apply, since many migrants travel through multiple countries on their way to the U.S. border.

However, the new regulation states that asylum seekers may be sent [from Texas] to any other countries with which the United States has asylum agreements that permit such an action – even if they did not first transit through those nations.

For example, migrants from Cameroon in Africa, or Bangalore in India, or Honduras in Central America might be told to ask for asylum in Guatemala instead of the United States. If they are given asylum in Guatemala, then U.S. officials will be legally free to deny them the right to request asylum in the United States. Once denied, the migrants cannot use the catch-and-release rules to repay their smuggling debts with cash from jobs in the United States.

The policy is one of the most ambitious of the many policies President Donald Trump is using to shrink economic migration from Central America in the face of massive resistance from Democrats and cheap-labor Republicans.

Pro-migration groups will challenge the new asylum policy in court. Their allies are already slamming the new regulation for delivering migrants back to countries that do not have adequate agencies to process asylum claims.

“Unfortunately, this is just the latest illegal attempt by this President and Stephen Miller to destroy our nation’s asylum system,” said a statement by New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Chair of the House Committee on the Judiciary, and California Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Chair of the Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship. “The fact that the Administration coerced a country [Guatemala] with threats of tariffs and attempts to cut off aid do not change the fact that Guatemala remains ill-equipped to protect its own citizens, let alone to meet the needs of migrants coming from other countries,” the statement says.

“UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has serious concerns about the new U.S. policy on asylum published Tuesday, 19 November,” said a statement from the UNHCR, adding:

It is an approach at variance with international law that could result in the transfer of highly vulnerable individuals to countries where they may face life-threatening dangers …

We have been working for years in Central America to support efforts by governments there to address growing forced displacement, strengthen the still very nascent asylum systems and to promote practical, humane responses coordinated at the regional level. While UNHCR is not a party to the bilateral ACA’s, we will continue to exercise our mandated responsibilities to promote access to international protection and solutions for individuals who need them, wherever they are.

However, these tactical objections help progressives hide their refusal to limit the potentially endless waves of asylum seekers at the U.S. borders.

For example, an article by Yael Schacher, a pro-migration advocate at Refugees International, cited a non-binding 1968 statement by President Lyndon Johnson that suggests all refugees have a right to work permits. Breitbart News asked her to describe some limits on migration. “The UN refugee convention and protocol [includes] the right to become self-supporting or the right to work,” said an evasive response from Schacher’s organization.

Similarly, Illinois Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin suggested December 7 that all foreigners — regardless of their numbers — have a right to live in the United States:

Immigration Numbers:

Each year, roughly four million young Americans join the workforce after graduating from high school or a university. This total includes about 800,000 Americans who graduate with skilled degrees in business or health care, engineering or science, software, or statistics.

But the federal government then imports about 1.1 million legal immigrants. It also adds replacement workers to a resident population of more than 1.5 million white-collar visa workers — including approximately one million H-1B workers and about 500,000 blue-collar H-2B, H-2A, and J-1 visa workers. The government also prints more than one million work permits for new foreigners, and it rarely punishes companies for employing illegal migrants.

This policy of inflating the labor supply boosts economic growth and stock values for investors. The stimulus happens because the extra labor ensures that employers do not have to compete for American workers by offering higher wages and better working conditions.

The federal policy of flooding the market with cheap, foreign white-collar graduates and blue-collar labor shifts wealth from young employees toward older investors. It also widens wealth gaps, reduces high-tech investment, increases state and local tax burdens, reduces marriage rates, and hurts children’s schools and college educations.

The cheap-labor economic strategy also pushes Americans away from high-tech careers, and it sidelines millions of marginalized Americans, including many who are now struggling with drug addictions.

The labor policy also moves business investment and wealth from the Heartland to the coastal cities, explodes rents and housing costs, undermines suburbia, shrivels real estate values in the Midwest, and rewards investors for creating low-tech, labor-intensive workplaces.

But President Donald Trump’s “Hire American” policy is boosting wages by capping immigration within a growing economy.

The Census Bureau said September 10 that men who work full-time and year-round got an earnings boost of 3.4 percent in 2018, pushing their median salaries up to $55,291. Women gained 3.3 percent in wages, bringing their median salaries to $45,097 for full-time, year-round work.

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