No. of Recommendations: 13
Why is this a good thing?
Because the current situation doesn't have any triggers. Or the ability to keep up with the flow of migrants.
You've been fulminating a lot against the bill, but you seem to misunderstand that everything about it is an improvement over the present situation in terms of reducing both the gross numbers and impacts of asylees so that the system can manage the number of applicants without negative consequences. The bill increases the number of detention beds while cutting the amount of time to process asylee requests (both by increasing immigration judge levels and by providing for increased administrative disposition of applications). It tightens the criteria for requesting asylum at the credible fear determination, which will result in a significant increase in the number of folks who get deported immediately at the very beginning of the process.
The goal of those substantive changes is to get back to a situation where the system can handle the number of people applying for asylum. That way, these folks won't be able to hang around in the country for years pending their hearings. The changes should be enough to get numbers down to the point where hearings are available in months, not years. Combine that with the increase in funding in detention, and you should be able to get to the point where most asylees spend very little time in-country while awaiting a determination.
The triggers are just the emergency backstop - if there's a short-term burst of asylees at any one time (which happens in peak season), the border gets shut down so that they can't apply while the system is overloaded. Again, that is a vast improvement over the current situation - where there are no triggers and no restrictions on how many people can request asylum after entering outside of a POE.
What is your actual objection to any of these changes? They all make the system tighter against migrants. Which is why migrant advocacy groups are pissed that almost everything in the bill makes the system harder for their constituents. In every aspect, it tightens the screws at the border.
