Forget About Sending Them Back: 65% of Illegal Kids Already Have Asylum

It’s funny how we have to find this stuff out from Congress and not the administration.

A House Judiciary Committee report states that 65% of illegal alien children who have entered the U.S. this year have already been given asylum — without appearing before a judge. Once granted asylum, the border jumper is eligible for all welfare programs — including Obamacare.

Now, before you burst a blood vessel, you can relax. According to the Department of Homeland Security, 70% of asylum cases contain “proven or possible fraud.”

What a trusting government we have! Don’t you wish the IRS worked that way?

Byron York:

Now, new numbers released by the House Judiciary Committee show the “vast majority” of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum are granted it before even appearing before a judge. “Information from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that shows 65 percent of unaccompanied alien minors’ asylum applications have been immediately approved by asylum officers in Fiscal Year 2014,” says a Judiciary Committee statement. “And this is just the first bite of the apple. Many more cases can be approved later. Where an asylum officer does not approve the application, it is then referred to an immigration judge where the applicant can try again. If that fails, they can continue to appeal their case.”
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The Judiciary Committee says asylum approval rates have “increased dramatically” under the Obama administration. Overall, according to the committee statement, “Approval rates by asylum officers have increased from 28 percent in 2007 to 46 percent in 2013 and approval rates by immigration judges in affirmative cases have increased from 51 percent in 2007 to 74 percent in 2013.” And that does not count appeals.

“Once individuals are granted asylum,” the report notes, “they have access to all major federal welfare programs.”

Complicating matters, according to the committee, is the rate of fraud in asylum cases. The committee says “an internal Department of Homeland Security report” has shown that “at least 70 percent of asylum cases contain proven or possible fraud.”

“President Obama’s refusal to crack down on rampant asylum fraud is one of the many reasons we are witnessing a surge of Central Americans seeking to enter the U.S. illegally at the border,” said the Judiciary Committee chairman, Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte, in a statement. “New data showing that the vast majority of Central Americans’ asylum claims are immediately approved will only worsen the situation along our southern border by encouraging more to come and take advantage of the situation.”

Gee. Ya think? I guess the “my dog ate my proof that I deserve asylum” excuse is working pretty well.

I am perplexed. Why not just announce to the entire world that you can come to America and be granted asylum if you’re from anywhere there is violence, drugs, gangs, or bad weather? Why talk tough about sending these kids home and then turn around and grant them what amounts to blanket asylum?

This is worse than going through the motions. The Obama administration is dealing with the crisis not by trying to staunch the flow of illegals but by shuffling the kids through the system as fast as they can possibly be moved. It doesn’t matter that few of them actually deserve asylum. What matters is keeping the human chain moving — processing them and letting them go as fast, or faster, than the law and prudence demand.

The consequences that will flow from this cynical process will be felt in the communities where these formerly illegal aliens will end up. It is there that the strain on social services will become acute and conditions for all will deteriorate. We are setting ourselves up to have to care for these kids for years — at least until they are of working age and they can try to fend for themselves.

But that, too, may be too optimistic. Illiterate, unskilled, with no conception of how to make a living in a 21st century industrialized democracy, it is far more likely that these kids will become part of a permanent underclass — on the public dole for their entire lives.