Storming the Southern Border Violent migrants will turn Americans against generous asylum policy.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/storming-the-southern-border-1543277802
Migrants on Sunday stormed the U.S. border near San Diego, and from the media coverage you’d think the culprits were the Border Patrol agents who used tear gas to disperse the mob and defend themselves. But the officers were right to repel the crowds, and the tragedy is that such lawlessness will undermine support for legal asylum in the U.S.
Hundreds of migrants overwhelmed Mexican law enforcement and rushed north, and some stormed the car lanes at San Ysidro, the Western Hemisphere’s biggest land-border crossing. Others surged through gaps in the nearby border fence.
The United States can’t tolerate migrants who rush the border or assault officers with rocks. Members of the same caravan defied officers last month to push through the Honduras-Guatemala border and later the Guatemala-Mexico border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection spent weeks preparing for a similar rush, and to its credit no one sustained serious injury on Sunday.
President Trump responded with typical overkill, threatening on Twitter Monday to “close the Border permanently if need be.” That may have been an attempt to get Mexico’s attention, but closing the border would hurt the U.S. too. More than 100,000 people cross north legally each day at San Ysidro, and Customs and Border Protection estimates that 33 such travelers create one American job.
By Monday morning Mexican authorities had already deported around 100 migrants over Sunday’s fracas and said they’ll do the same to others involved. Mexican immigration officials added that, far from helping Central American migrants, such acts “undermine the legal migration framework and could result in a serious incident at the border line.”
That’s also a message for U.S. immigration activists who too often sound as if migration anywhere is a natural right. Sunday’s real victims are Central Americans who have respected U.S. law even as they flee genuine persecution, and who are waiting in Tijuana to seek asylum legally at the U.S. port of entry.
Violence and lawlessness erode public support for a generous asylum policy. Germany is the cautionary tale. Even Hillary Clinton recently acknowledged that Chancellor Angela Merkel erred by admitting a million Middle Eastern migrants in 2015. The result has been a political backlash that has abetted the far right and turned many Europeans against non-passport transfers within Europe.
Mr. Trump is also being vilified for seeking to keep asylum seekers inside Mexico as they wait to have their requests reviewed by U.S. agents. But 69 of the migrants who rushed the border Sunday made it to U.S. soil. They were detained and will be prosecuted, but the Immigration and Nationality Act allows them to apply for asylum now, despite their lawlessness.
The Trump Administration wants to prevent migrants who enter the U.S. illegally from qualifying for asylum. But activists sued, and federal Judge Jon Tigar issued a temporary restraining order last week. The legal merits are for another editorial. But the practical point is that some of Sunday’s bad behavior is being rewarded despite U.S. attempts to reduce the incentive for law-breaking. There’s no faster way to lose public support for immigration.
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