I didn’t want to let this get by without remarking on it. The editors of the Washington Post lament the decline in support for asylum in Western countries:
It is no coincidence that just as President Donald Trump declared the United States would stop hearing migrants’ asylum requests at the southern border, the Italian government of Giorgia Meloni defied courts in her country and restarted a program to ship asylum seekers to Albania.
The simultaneous gambits on both sides of the Atlantic reflect the worldwide collapse of political support for the post-World War II consensus that persecuted people should be granted the right to asylum. Facing a crush of asylum seekers at their borders, rich countries are experimenting with measures to keep them out.
I will steer away from remarking about the problems that mass migration poses for the ethnic nations of Europe to focus on political attitudes in a country with which I am more familiar, the United States.
Where were the editors when the Biden Administration was accepting five to seven million fraudulent asylum requests? The grant ratio for Mexican and Central American applicants hovers in the single digits, i.e. more than 90% are declined. I can think of no surer way to erode support for legitimate asylum than by issuing a blanket invitation to apply for refugee status to non-refugees. For nearly 40 years the number of asylum applications granted in the U. S. has been around 50,000. It’s still right around 50,000 but the number of applicants has skyrocketed, overloading the system and costing taxpayers billions.
Don’t be surprised if it’s a generation before the opinions of Americans towards immigration skews positive again. That’s what I’ve been warning about for the last generation. I hope those who encouraged the mass immigration are happy.
The Trump Administration is suing Illinois and Chicago for their sanctuary laws. In 2019, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals partially rejected a challenge to California’s sanctuary laws from the Trump administration. California’s law is pretty different though. In 2021 Illinois amended its sanctuary law to shield illegal immigrants convicted of a felony. California expressly permits law enforcement to tell federal immigration officials when an inmate convicted of a felony or serious offenses is going to be released, so it arguably doesn’t hinder federal law requiring such inmates to be removed from the country.
Illinois appears to be out on a limb with its laws in this regard. At one point in time, Illinois made it illegal for employers to use e-verify, which a federal court enjoined.
The problem with the idea the governor and the mayor are promoting, that state and local governments need not cooperate with federal authorities, is that it rests on shaky Illinois constitutional and common law grounds.