My opinion is: if they crossed the border without being on asylum, or any other legal means they should be gone.
Someone can correct me if I am wrong here and I'll happily change my position.
Only issue with this is, US policy is that asylum claims must be made in person from inside the US (this might be common for other countries too). This issue, I believe is what is causing a lot of disagreement between a lot of us.
So do you realize a huge number of people sent to CECOT or are otherwise being atrested and deported are waiting for their asylum cases to be ruled on? They are being lumped under the banner of illegal immigrants. ICE is picking these people up daily from their court hearings to be fast tracked out.
Catch and release doesn't work.
I believe this is primarily done for asylum claims due to the LONG delays in processing and court backlog. I agree it shouldn't be the default policy but as you say below and housing them on taxpayer dollars for months to years is unfair to US citizens. I agree completely. We need to speed up the process a lot. It has though been shown that those on the receicing end of catch and release commit crimes and take gov handouts at much lower rates than US citizens because they don't want to jeopardize their chances.
Everyone knows to claim asylum once picked up. And therefore the line gets super long. Issue is you can't just blanket deny. There needs to be a faster means to validate claims or find agreeable (with all parties) other host nations for people just entering and making those claims. Not sure how that would work though.
Flying them in and housing them on taxpayer or charitable $ seems pretty unfair to the current citizens who wish to flee their current situation.
Do we fly them in routinely? I honestly don't know. Should be on their dime to get into the country. Kinda BS if we do that for anything other than VERY specific conditions.
The US is a violent country, as has been repeated ad nauseum here lately, what do citizens involved in gang violence in our inner cities do if they want to flee, if they wanted to they have to do it without illegally crossing borders or face deportation or worse.
If an American presented themselves in another country claiming political persecution or fear of violence. An American can travel to and enter a LOT of countries without a visa, does that mean you came in legally or illegally? I guess you could claim asylum at customs, not sure. But once in the country and claiming asylum they are supposed to not deport you until the claim is verified or rejected.
UN charter on Human Rights
Article 14
1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
