Dem Rep. Gonzalez: Asylum Laws ‘Being Abused’ by Those Fleeing Poverty, We Have to Move Applications away from Border

On Wednesday’s broadcast of NBC’s “MTP Now,” Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) said that America’s asylum laws are “are being abused” because “The vast, vast majority of people who come to our southern border are escaping poverty and not necessarily violence” and argued that we need to have people apply for asylum away from the border and until we do so, there will be problems on the border.

Gonzalez said, “I’ve got to tell you that our asylum laws are antiquated. And they are being abused. The vast, vast majority of people who come to our southern border are escaping poverty and not necessarily violence…I’ve proposed something called the Safe Zones Act, which creates a zone on the border of Guatemala and Mexico — kind of like the Green Zone we had in Iraq, if you will — but it would be — it would have asylum-seekers show up and be able to be processed at that juncture. And if we’re going to allow them in under the credible fear standard that we use now at our southern border, which is quite a low standard, then we should allow them in from this juncture or their home country.”

Gonzalez added that “The fact is, asylum laws that we have now are antiquated and are being abused. People are escaping poverty and are showing up to our border and –.”

Host Chuck Todd then cut in to ask if fleeing poverty should be a reason to grant asylum. Gonzalez responded that he doesn’t think it should.

Gonzalez also stated that “until we have long-term infrastructure further away from our border, we’re going to always be dealing with these situations.” And argued that Title 42 should be kept in place.

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