Fmr. Obama Acting ICE Director: We Don’t Remove People with Rejected Asylum Claims, Work Permits Are a Draw

On Tuesday’s broadcast of “NewsNation Now,” John Sandweg, who served as acting ICE Director during the Obama administration, stated that people who claim asylum can “very easily” stay in the country for years before their claim is heard by a judge and “During that time, you probably also get work authorization, so you can live and work in this country. As long as that remains a fact, there’s no disincentive for people to come,” “And then let’s be honest, there’s very little enforcement on the back end of that. Even after six years, when the immigration judge says no, you’re not eligible for asylum, we’re not doing much to actually remove those individuals, deport them back to their home countries.”

Sandweg argued that we need to surge resources into the asylum system. He added, “And when people back home see that the person who left to make an asylum claim…when they come back, it’s going to have that deterrent effect we’re looking for. But the alternative is I think what the Senate is discussing, are there ways to streamline the process? So, we’re not going to surge resources. Can we eliminate the process? Look, I think the devil’s in the details, we’ve got to see what the Senate comes up with.”

He added, “Look, people are coming here — they see their neighbors leave this country, they get recruited by smugglers, they pay everything they’ve got to these smugglers, they see their neighbors leave and go make this asylum claim, and then, next thing they know, they’re successful, right? We’ve — our system is so overwhelmed that if you show up at the border today, and you say, I want asylum in this country, it very easily could be three, four, five, six years before an immigration judge decides whether you have a real claim. During that time, you probably also get work authorization, so you can live and work in this country. As long as that remains a fact, there’s no disincentive for people to come, right? And then let’s be honest, there’s very little enforcement on the back end of that. Even after six years, when the immigration judge says no, you’re not eligible for asylum, we’re not doing much to actually remove those individuals, deport them back to their home countries. So, yes, I absolutely think it’s solvable. We’ve just got to put some resources into enforcing the existing laws.”

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