Addressing the Border Crisis

At the Rand Blog Blas Nunez-Neto proposes four measures to address the crisis at our southern border. I agree with two of them and 50% ain’t bad. Here they are:

  1. Expanding the use of non-restrictive detention options for families. This could include large increases in the use of minimally invasive tools that can allow families to be released while ensuring that they can be located and notified about their court cases. It could also include creating statutory guidelines and expanding the capacity to detain families in non-restrictive facilities. These guidelines could ensure that facilities that handle families have humane conditions and feature age-appropriate protections and learning opportunities for all detainees.
  2. Ensuring that families have access to counsel. Individuals who have counsel are far more likely to show up for their immigration court cases than those who do not. As part of any reform of the asylum system, Congress could consider whether this benefit outweighs the costs of requiring that all asylum seekers have access to qualified counsel.
  3. Creating new processes to allow some of these families to apply for visas to come to the United States while they are still in their home countries. If policymakers believe that these migratory flows are likely to continue, they may consider providing legal mechanisms for families from these countries to come the United States.
  4. Adding capacity to the immigration court system. The current backlogs in these courts are the byproduct of a broken and under-resourced system. Congress could closely review the entire system to identify the bottlenecks that have led to these record backlogs and increase the number of immigration judges who are qualified to hear asylum cases.

I agree with #3 and #4. I think that the adverse consequences of the other two are likely to outweigh the intended effects.

They say that acknowledging you have a problem is the first step on the road to recovery. I guess that referring to the situation on our southern border as a crisis is a step in the right direction.

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