AUSTIN—Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published the research paper, Toward a 21st-Century Asylum System.
“The United States has an outdated asylum system that is not equipped to meet the needs posed by the current migrant crisis,” said John Daniel Davidison, senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “The sharp increase in asylum-seekers has created an enormous backlog of asylum cases with years-long wait times that have invited abuse of the system while failing to give needed protection to those with valid claims.”
Key Points:
- The current U.S. asylum system was designed for the Cold War and the exigencies of that era. Today we face new challenges and we need an asylum system that, above all, serves the national interest first.
- Enhanced border security measures and strict immigration enforcement will not, on their own, significantly reduce the number of migrants crossing the border. Without reforming the asylum system, the incentive to cross the border illegally will remain strong.
- The credible fear interview process, the first step in determining whether a migrant has a valid claim to asylum, needs to be stricter and more streamlined.
- The 1997 Flores settlement, which prohibits families from being detained for more than 20 days, must be superseded by federal legislation that gives immigration officials more time to assess asylum claims.
- The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 should be amended to eliminate incentives for families to send their children across the border unaccompanied.
To read the paper in full, please visit: