Among the pitches the GOP leaders will make is that they trust the Obama administration to keep its word in relation to new measures to secure the border and enforce immigration laws. But, a new report on the state of the political asylum program casts serious doubts that anyone should trust this White House.
The
report is an to analysis released March 26 by the Center for Immigration Studies. The Obama administration has hijacked the process for granting political asylum, so that it no longer functions as a legitimate check on fraudulent and unworthy cases.
“If asylum is not the new amnesty, it is awfully close to it,” said Dan Cadman, the author of the report and a fellow at the center, which was founded in 1985 and is the nation's only think tank devoted exclusively to research and policy analysis of immigration to the United States.
One area the administration has manipulated the process was with the determination of “credible fear,” he said.
The number of applicants passing the preliminary "credible fear" test nearly tripled from 2012 to 2013, and has increased nearly 600 percent since 2007, he said.
Then, once the applicant receives asylum, they receive access to all major welfare programs.
“The number of credible fear claims that are being passed through as a rubber stamp, frankly, is shocking,” he said.
“I won’t say that everyone who asks gets it, but it’s close,” he said.
“One of the things that was supposed to impede people from abusing the system, and intended, when it was first passed into law, was for it to get the flotsam and jetsam out of the system, so they could focus on legitimate claims—instead, it is being used to give everyone a get-out-of-jail-free card.”
Because many illegal aliens are overstaying visas, the asylum process is a way to get legal again.
"Many illegal immigrants have learned how to game the system by applying for asylum as a means of prolonging their time in the United States,” Cadman said. “If a claimant can pass the preliminary credible fear test they can buy themselves months, often years, living and working legally in the United States. A system designed to stem fraud and abuse has been undone by executive action, agency inaction, and judicial activism."
Cadman said the sharp increase in political asylums is not based on an increase in political oppression.
“Fraud accounts for much of the increase,” he said.
“According to a DHS internal report, 70 percent of asylum applications examined were fraudulent or had strong indicators of fraud,” he continued. “With such a high rate of fraud, it is alarming that DHS statistics show a positive credible fear finding in 92 percent of all cases decided on the merits.”
Despite all the arguments over how to reform our immigration system, the truth is that 75 percent of what is proposed would pass easily with support from both parties. No one is happy with the current system, but the reasonable and consensus items are held hostage to the demands of the unholy alliance of Liberals, Silicone Valley and the Chamber of Commerce—and the GOP leadership. They want flat out amnesty, and once they have amnesty, they want instant citizenship.
When the squeeze comes, conservatives will be told they can trust the Obama administration to enforce the law and protect the borders.
One look at how the Obama administration corrupted the political asylum process should be warning enough, if they did not have enough warning already.
Neil W. McCabe——
Bio and Archives
Neil W. McCabe is the editor of Human Event’s “Guns & Patriots” e-letter and was a senior reporter at the Human Events newspaper. McCabe deployed with the Army Reserve to Iraq for 15 months as a combat historian. For many years, he was a reporter and photographer for “The Pilot,” Boston’s Catholic paper. He was also the editor of two free community papers, “The Somerville (Mass.) News and “The Alewife (North Cambridge, Mass.).”
