Close the Border

America is now experiencing a border crisis without precedent. And it's all driven by politics.

With the suspension of the "Remain in Mexico" policy, and the vastly increased social support network being made available to illegal migrants who gain entry into the United States, over 2 million border-crossers were "caught and released" over the past 12 months into America. Add to that the estimated 650,000 "got-aways" - people who crossed the border illegally and then escaped arrest.

That same number of 2.7 million people are expected to illegally arrive over the next year, and the same the year after that.

Add to that the estimated 1.2 million "legal immigrants" - and you come up with an annual immigration of 3.9 million people.

During the four years of the Biden administration, over 15.5 million immigrants - legal and illegal - are expected to enter the US. That's a population larger than many countries. And it is unsustainable.

The crush of illegal migration is now collapsing the social safety net we have built to serve and protect Americans.

Although the tidal wave of migrants was encouraged by the Democratic Biden administration, many Democratic big-city Mayors are now crying for relief from the human wave. Democrat-run cities like New York, Chicago and Washington, DC, are crying for relief, and instituting states of emergency.

But the solution to the current border crisis is no different from the policies tried again and again before Biden scrapped them:

1) Remain in Mexico

Asylum seekers should be forced to live in Mexico, pending their review and hearing:

2) Country of First Refuge Rule

Require Asylum seekers to claim Asylum only in the "first country" he or she traveled through after leaving the homeland where they face a "reasonable risk of persecution..." Why claim asylum in the US, when Mexico, or Salvador were the first countries to allow the migrants to cross their territory ?

These two simple changes - a return to prior US policy - will reduce the incentive to asylum seeking migrants too come to America.

Migrants are rational people - and we need a migration and naturalization service that reflects that reality. People will not come to the US, if it means four years in Mexico, and a denial. And these are hardly "draconian" or "inhumane" remedies.

These two small rule changes - reversion to prior rules - would give great incentive to cut the numbers of opportunistic migrants. We owe it to our country and our future to give it a try.