In previous articles, I have railed against how Democrats and many in the legacy media (sorry for the redundancy) have been distorting the concept of due process as it relates to illegal aliens. They have purposely been misleading the public that an illegal alien gets the same type of due process on a deportation hearing as does an American citizen (or illegal alien) going to trial for rape or murder.
It's simply not true.
The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act passed by Congress allows for the expedited deporting of recently arrived illegal aliens. The Biden administration essentially ignored this tool, but President Donald Trump has been vigilant in seeking to remove as many illegal aliens as possible.
The cartels and the illegal immigration lobby joined Democrats (who truly want the illegals to remain in this country on the hope they'll become future voters) who caught on to the loophole that allows illegal aliens facing expedited removal to simply express a bogus asylum claim, thereby possibly allowing them to stay in the country longer pending the asylum hearing.
Usually, these asylum hearings would be a rapid, no-nonsense decision by Homeland Security personnel or a hearing examiner; and the person would be deported if there was no supporting evidence of credible fear. The angle used by many of these bogus asylum applicants was that they were going to be tortured or killed by gang members once deported back to their home countries.
It seemed that every Tom, Dick, and Harry was claiming this defense. The hearing examiners had very little wherewithal to determine if these claims were accurate.
But, now, the decision by the Supreme Court allowing a president to deport an asylum seeker to countries other than his or her homeland is a sea change on the issue.
Once the administration can direct the asylum seeker to a third country, the claim of potential harm that would be incurred in their home country becomes moot.
Of course, it will not be easy to have third-party countries accept these illegal aliens. But don't be so quick as to dismiss it as pure folly either.
The Trump administration has had great success in cajoling other countries to take cooperative action, either through the stick (imposing greater tariffs) or carrots (providing significant funding).
And before you say that it would be too costly to pay these countries to take these illegal aliens, one must understand that according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Mathematics, illegal immigrants were costing the American taxpayer over $740 billion before the Biden wave. Imagine what it's costing now.
New York City alone had to shell out $8 billion during the Biden administration to care for all of these illegal border crossers that landed in their city.
The incentivized dollars given to the third-party countries would be spit in the ocean compared to what we're paying on a yearly basis to house and feed these illegal new arrivals.
And that doesn't even take into account the cost to our schools, our hospitals, and our criminal justice system. Nor does it take into account the suppression of wages that have resulted from low-cost illegal labor.
Once these deals are inked with these third-party countries, look for the deportation numbers to increase significantly. It was indeed the bogus asylum claims that were gumming up the works.
Trump's "Remain in Mexico” program was marvelously successful in stopping the migrants at the border from being able to stay in the country while the asylum hearing is pending. Former President Joe Biden eviscerated that well-working program on purpose so he could allow millions to illegally enter our borders country and stay here perhaps indefinitely.
As to those people who are presently here, even the Trump administration was going to have a hard time getting them out quickly when these bogus asylum claims could buy a great deal of time for the illegal immigrants.
Not so much anymore.
Between the Remain in Mexico policy as it applies to immigrants at the border and this new third-party deportation plan for those already here, the jig may be up on the illegal immigration lobby's exploitation of our asylum laws.
Let's hope so, because the proponents of these bogus asylum claims made a mockery of the true intention of the original asylum laws, which were meant to protect outspoken political dissidents from a communist country who faced a firing squad.
Asylum was never meant for an immigrant who was coming here simply to better his or her economic conditions. Maybe now with this new Supreme Court decision, we can get back to the original intent of our asylum laws.
Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of "The Steve Levy Radio Show." He is the author of "Solutions to America's Problems" and "Bias in the Media." www.SteveLevy.info, Twitter @SteveLevyNY, steve@commonsensestrategies.com. Read Steve Levy's Reports — More Here.