Jason Dzubow, an immigration attorney and writer for The Asylumist, sat down with Sputnik’s Political Misfits on Thursday to discuss immigration policy as it relates to a $111 billion spending package that has become a partisan battle.
“It does seem like the Republicans at least believe they have an advantage here and I think probably polling supports this belief; that the American public is not thrilled with what’s going on at the Southern border, and that they’re very concerned about large numbers of people coming in every month—I think last month it was 189,000 or something,” Dzubow explained.
“So there’s large numbers of people arriving. I mean this has always been the case—it was the case under Trump, it’s sort of marginal differences from one administration to the next,” he explains, adding that the flow of immigrants is also dependent on other factors such as people’s abilities to reach the US as well as the economies of both the US and other countries, as opposed to what is being done to "stop people" from entering the US.
Thus far, efforts to keep immigrants out of the US have included building a wall which Dzubow said has been “pretty ineffective”.
“As they say, ‘show me a 12-foot wall, I’ll show you a 13-foot ladder’,” Dzubow remarked.
What would be a more effective approach to immigration, says Dzubow, is to change the law about who qualifies for asylum.
“When someone arrives at the border they can say, ‘I’m afraid to go back to my country I’m seeking asylum,’ there’s an initial evaluation of eligibility for asylum called a Credible Fear Interview, it’s a relatively low standard, so trying to make that standard more difficult would make it more difficult for people to pass that initial step," he explains. "And if they failed that initial step they would return to Mexico [sic] or wherever they came from—whatever is their country of citizenship.”
“And of course that’s problematic from a human rights standpoint—from a practical standpoint it may also be problematic because Mexico was very reluctant to take people back, initially. There was an agreement to do so, but whether that will continue, whether they’re willing to do it in large numbers we don’t know."
“It is broken,” Dzubow continued, adding that the system at the border has been broken for as long as he has been working as an immigration attorney which he says at this point has been “20 years”. A legitimate, proposed solution to the broken system, he says, “remains to be seen”.
“We want to do the right thing—protect people from harm,” said Dzubow. “But on the other hand, the more we protect people the more people are going to try to come here to get protection.”
“It’s a very difficult balance, there’s no easy solution.”
“Immigration is a policy problem,” explains Dzubow. “It’s a policy problem that I think is amenable to policy solutions—maybe not perfect—but at least we could make significant improvements to maybe focus better on who we want to admit, who we want to protect—try to exclude people who we don’t think are deserving of protection. But Congress is incapable, it seems, of actually having an intelligent conversation on this subject because it’s so wrapped up in politics.”
Dzubow went on to explain that border policy is a good talking point from perspective of the Republican party, as polling suggests that Americans are concerned about immigration and blame President Joe Biden for the failures at the US-Mexico border.
In addition, he adds, Democrats seem to be detached from what Americans support. And regarding the battle over the billion-dollar spending package, Dzubow believes the GOP has the leverage they need to secure the border policies they desire.
Whether or not the two parties will reach a decision before their deadline, he adds, remains unclear. US lawmakers are only scheduled to be in session until the end of next week before they break, leaving little time for what would be a $111 billion resolve.
On Wednesday before the vote on the spending package, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell explained that Republicans would block the supplemental spending package because it does not seriously address America's “national security priorities” arguing that “fixing a badly broken asylum and parole system isn’t hijacking the supplemental, it’s strengthening it”.
House Speaker Mike Johnson shared those same sentiments in a two-page letter on Tuesday, writing that “Ukraine funding is dependent upon enactment of transformative change to our nation’s border security laws”.
In his letter Johnson also voiced frustrations with the White House after they failed to provide the American people with “answers to our repeated questions concerning: the Administration’s strategy to prevail in Ukraine; clearly defined and obtainable objectives; transparency and accountability for U.S. taxpayer dollars invested there; and what specific resources are required to achieve victory and a sustainable peace.”
On Monday, US Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young told US lawmakers that as of mid-November the Pentagon had already spent 96% of the $62.3 billion it had received on Ukraine. She warned leaders that resources allocated for Ukraine are running out.