Asylum Claims Jump Despite Trump’s Attempt to Limit Immigration

Ron Nixon of the New York Times reports that the number of asylum seekers jumped nearly 70 percent from 2017, according to Department of Homeland Security data released yesterday, despite the Trump administration’s aggressive border enforcement efforts.

Nearly 60 percent of asylum seekers at the border were people in families.

Agency officials attributed the increase to smuggling organizations.

In contrast, immigration advocates, however, said the rise in asylum claims is a result of tens of thousands of people fleeing violence in Honduras and elsewhere in Central America.

Homeland Security officials said the increase in migrants at the southwest border had overwhelmed an antiquated system that was not intended to handle large numbers of people at a single time. They said the ports of entry were devised to process men traveling alone, not families or transgender people.

KJ