WASHINGTON, D.C. – Recently, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) co-sponsored the Secure and Protect Act of 2021, legislation introduced by U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that reforms broken policies and stops the abuse of our asylum laws. The problem has been exacerbated by President Biden, who in one of his first actions upon taking office, eliminated the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy implemented by President Trump which had greatly reduced the abuse of asylum laws.
The major provisions of the Secure and Protect Act of 2021 include:
Today, just like in 2018 and 2019 before ‘Remain in Mexico’ was implemented, our Customs and Border Protection officials are overwhelmed by economic migrants seeking asylum from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, also known as the Northern Triangle countries.
These asylum seekers, and the smugglers who profit off them, have learned to game the U.S. immigration system. Due to our broken asylum system, migrants are emboldened by the ease in which they can simply walk across the border into the United States and remain here. They travel to the U.S.-Mexico border, locate a Customs and Border Protection official, turn themselves in, and request asylum.
Now, officials at the border are looking at numbers of migrants larger than 2018, 2019, and 2020 combined and increasingly, they are children.
Senator Tillis is scheduled to visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas later this week to meet with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials to discuss the crisis at the border.
The major provisions of the Secure and Protect Act of 2021 include:
- Asylum applications from residents of the Northern Triangle or countries that border it would be filed at refugee processing centers – not in the United States. These centers would be established in Central America and Mexico.
- Modify U.S. law to allow families to be held together safely for longer than the 20 days currently allowed by the Flores decision. Requires families to be processed swiftly as priority cases.
- Appoint 500 new immigration judges and requisite support staff to reduce the current backlog of cases.
- Unaccompanied minors (UAC) from Central America would be treated the same as minors from Canada and Mexico. This would allow the United States to return all UAC to their country of origin after the appropriate screening.
Today, just like in 2018 and 2019 before ‘Remain in Mexico’ was implemented, our Customs and Border Protection officials are overwhelmed by economic migrants seeking asylum from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, also known as the Northern Triangle countries.
These asylum seekers, and the smugglers who profit off them, have learned to game the U.S. immigration system. Due to our broken asylum system, migrants are emboldened by the ease in which they can simply walk across the border into the United States and remain here. They travel to the U.S.-Mexico border, locate a Customs and Border Protection official, turn themselves in, and request asylum.
Now, officials at the border are looking at numbers of migrants larger than 2018, 2019, and 2020 combined and increasingly, they are children.
Senator Tillis is scheduled to visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas later this week to meet with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials to discuss the crisis at the border.
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