Why Are US Authorities Tightening Immigration Laws?

Donald Trump believes that the fight against people in the U.S. illegally should help him get reelected to a second term.

No matter who among the Democrats will run against Donald Trump for the presidency next year, the main topic in the upcoming political battle will be illegal immigration into the U.S. and preventing it. The current U.S. president is determined to win this fight, and his recent actions clearly confirm that.

The Trump administration has announced new rules for applying for any kind of asylum, including political asylum, which, in theory, completely contradict the provisions of international law. The president himself has called these international laws “ridiculous” and “stupid.” The measures taken by the American authorities, on the other hand, he considers “long overdue” and “aimed at preserving U.S. sovereignty over its own territory.”*

What exactly are we talking about? The new measures taken by the immigration services practically block any opportunity for immigrant families from the countries of Central America to enter the United States legally. That’s because in order to file their application for asylum in America, they will now have to do so in the first country they come to after crossing the border of their own state—that is, in Mexico. Now they won’t be able to do it at the U.S. border, which is what they did previously.

The provision also deprives Mexicans, Cubans, Haitians and natives of other Caribbean islands of the opportunity to apply for political asylum. Previously, all of these people intentionally scrambled into Mexico, illegally crossed the U.S. border, cheerfully surrendered to employees of the immigration service, and filed their applications once they were in the U.S. Such strict measures have been prompted, above all, by an influx of illegal immigrants not seen in the last 30 years, mainly from Central America, and who, as if following a precisely timed musical score, keep making their way to the U.S. border as entire families in order to gain access to, as they themselves tell journalists, “the American dream.”

Meanwhile, not only the migration and border services, but even the U.S. National Guard, called upon to help set up temporary camps to accommodate the crowds of migrants that have squeezed through the border onto American territory, have long since failed to cope with the influx of such American dreamers. Judge for yourselves: since just the beginning of this year, U.S. border guards have detained 363,000 immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as 3,200 Mexicans, 856 Cubans and other foreigners who have exploded through the U.S.-Mexican border, which, in my opinion, is very telling. Representatives of various U.S. human rights organizations immediately said that the rules imposed by the White House are “inhumane” and “do moral harm to those who see the United States as their only opportunity to escape the persecution and poverty in their native countries.”*

At the same time, mass immigration raids have also begun in the 10 largest U.S. cities, the goal of which is to apprehend and usher out of the country the no fewer than 1 million foreigners in the U.S. illegally who have received arrest and deportation orders from court. Officially, it is estimated that there are more than 10 million people in the U.S. without legal documentation (although this figure is substantially conservative). Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services office, has now become practically the main target of groundless criticism and outright insults not only from human rights activists but a number of Democratic House members. They believe that the U.S. immigration service is using “Gestapo tactics” to do its work. And they refer to the construction of any barriers on the border with Mexico as no less than “the construction of monuments to racism.”*

I would note that the American media actively take part in the attacks against Trump personally and against the immigration service. Day after day they televise the grief-stricken faces of crying mothers and young children. They document the supposedly “inhumane” conditions at centers for illegal immigrants in Texas and Arizona, as well as the accusatory speeches of Democratic legislators who solely blame the president for the immigration crisis on the US-Mexican border.

Moreover, the leading TV channels broadcast special programs in which lawyers advise illegals on how to deceive immigration agents, how to hide in an apartment and not open the door to the authorities, and how to “accurately” talk about their supposedly nightmarish life in their native country so that their asylum application is reviewed. And now imagine if the central TV stations in Russia showed something like this, in which immigrants from the republics of Central Asia learn how to deceive the Russian immigration services and the police!

In my opinion, it is worth paying attention to this. You see, both a majority of American journalists and individual legislators are in fact calling for unlawful action. And the widespread defamation of immigration service employees who are just doing their jobs leads to more than a few of the country’s citizens declaring the very fact that the U.S. government is regulating its borders a virtual “crime against humanity.”

Having placed his bet on winning (even if only partially) the fight against illegal immigration, Trump intends to complete the construction of several sections of a wall on the border with Mexico by the beginning of next year, when his reelection campaign will be in full swing, as wells as deport roughly 1 million people from Central America in the U.S. illegally. But supporters of the Democratic Party, plus the bulk of the media, will hinder Trump from doing so in every way possible. Understanding what and who he is dealing with, Trump has stated that “a country without borders isn’t a country” and he “won’t allow the country’s borders to be open for everyone who for some reason decides to come to America just because it’s better and richer than their native country.”*

*Editor’s note: Although accurately translated, the quoted remarks could not be independently verified.