Once upon a time, every mainstream Media outlet was painting the immigration crisis as a hoax. Some publications are still in denial and refusing to give the issue as much coverage as it deserves, even as we find Texas locked in a full-blown stand-off with the Biden administration to curb the millions of illegal migrants flooding our southern border from every corner of the globe.
In the words of the great philosopher, Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Well, life has been moving pretty fast in the US, and it's time to stop and look around when it comes to immigration policies. It's time to consider a moratorium on asylum laws and refugee treaties.
While many in the US are hyper fixated on our own border crisis, America is far from alone. The US and Europe are facing an unprecedented flood of migrants at our borders, from all over the world, and leaders in both of our countries seemingly have their hands tied. Why?
In both the US and Europe, asylum laws and international refugee treaties are rendering typical methods to curb mass illegal immigration null and void. What would, in any sane world, be considered illegal immigration, is now technically legal. To put it simply, our woke, open-arms asylum laws force us to accept anybody who steps foot on our soil and claims they are seeking asylum. Combine that with Leftist globalist leaders in the Biden Administration and Europe who have flaunted their lack of enforcement, and we get to our astronomical - and unsustainable - rise in asylum applications.
In 2019, the US received 253,834 asylum applications, while in 2023, the number is at 1.5 million, a significant increase over the past five years. In Europe, the number of asylum applications in 2019 was 996,000, and in 2023, it is at 1.2 million. With over 4.6 million asylum seekers worldwide waiting for their claims to be processed under the European Union Migration and Asylum Pact and a staggering backlog of hundreds of thousands of asylum cases in the US, the only solution is to hit the pause button and reassess our approach to immigration, asylum, and refugee laws internationally.
The ongoing war between Governor Abbott and the Biden Administration only serves to highlight the urgent need for a moratorium. We can put up as many barriers, cargo containers, barbed wire fences, and buoys as we want. If we continue to refuse deportation so long as the person steps foot on our soil and says the magic word "asylum," they will find a way to cross any and every barrier or find new areas to enter. Simply, it is not possible to combat the migrant crisis without a complete reform of these policies.
A moratorium would allow for critical planning of mass deportations of those gaming the system, the expansion of legal immigration channels, and would prevent the unscheduled disassembly of America and Europe's infrastructure that we are rapidly heading towards. We can ensure that the US and Europe remain beacons of hope for those who desire the American Dream without sacrificing the safety and well-being of our own citizens.
