No. of Recommendations: 6
That 70 year old doctrine has served us well but it no longer accounts for today's reality that massive numbers of immigrants can and do game the system.
I'm not sure that's an accurate description of today's reality.
Certainly the number of people claiming asylum has increased dramatically. But there's no way of knowing whether that's because people are "gaming" the system to any great degree (which I assume you mean making a bad faith assertion of asylum just to remain in country). The numbers can go up if large number of people start claiming asylum in bad faith....or if you have more of the same mix of people applying. It's way too soon to see whether a greater proportion of people are losing their asylum cases, which would indicate an increase in the number of specious claims - it will be years before recently-filed claims reach final decision. But the fact that asylum applications have spiked not just in the U.S., but also in other countries like Mexico and Costa Rica, suggests that the increase is due to worsening conditions in the Central Triangle, Venezuela, and Nicaragua - not more people "gaming the system."
Remember, a very large number of asylum applications (half a million last year) are affirmative requests, not defensive requests. A defensive request gets submitted as a way of stopping a removal/deportation process at the border, both between and at ports of entry. If someone is physically present in the country but is subject to being removed because they lack a visa or have crossed outside of a POE, they file a defensive request. Affirmative requests are filed outside of that scenario - someone who isn't trying to avoid being removed because they're here without permission, but instead is making a request to stay for good.
