Why the U.S. immigration system is strained and unable to handle record number of migrants

Amna Nawaz:

On the U.S.-Mexico border, agents are encountering a record number of migrants, more than 10,000 a day.

In Eagle Pass, Texas, thousands are waiting to be processed. Border officials shut down two freight rail crossings there over the weekend after detecting a surge of migrants being smuggled by train. And, yesterday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent a state plane carrying more than 120 recent immigrants to Chicago, where leaders are struggling to provide services to new arrivals.

Lisa Desjardins has more on the forces overwhelming the country's immigration system and possible solutions on the table in our nation's capital.

Lisa Desjardins:

To underscore just how seriously national leaders view the latest surge at the border, President Biden spoke to Mexico's president today about the urgent need for more enforcement. And Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will head to Mexico in the coming days.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is also urging the president to take executive actions to stem the tide of migration, even as senators continue negotiations on a broader deal to fix an immigration system seen by many as broken or at least at its limits.

To lay out how that system works and does not work, I'm joined by Doris Meissner of the Migration Policy Institute. She is a former commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and Ruth Wasem, a senior fellow at Cleveland State University and a longtime congressional researcher on immigration.

Doris, I want to start, first of all, explaining the push factor. How do you see this moment right now in world migration?

Doris Meissner, Migration Policy Institute:

We're in a new global era. This is happening all over the world that we are seeing large, new flows of migrants.

And it's a combination of things. It's a combination of the post-pandemic, when most countries and many countries of the world have not come back as quickly as we have in the United States. It's failed states. It's corruption and violence. It is climate issues.

And it is persecution and discrimination.

Lisa Desjardins:

Ruth, so we have established that this is a global, historic moment in migration. But help us understand the pressures and idiosyncrasies of this hemisphere, why the influx, especially at the United States?

Ruth Wasem, Senior Fellow, Cleveland State University:

Well, where we're in a unique situation is that there are about 108 million displaced people around the world.

Most of the focus of the international organizations like UNHCR are on war zones, and they're in Africa, the Middle East, in Asia. This hemisphere hasn't gotten the same attention from a lot of the international organizations. And, arguably, they might not have thought the situation was as severe as these other parts of the world.

But we are now seeing the same phenomena, as Doris has just discussed, happening here that's happening around the world. And so we are feeling the same pressures, but it hasn't gotten the same attention beyond United States about the pressures in this hemisphere.

Lisa Desjardins:

Doris, the way we see this manifesting right now at the border with these surging numbers, these migrants, talking especially about those that are crossing at illegal points of entry. They're using the asylum system.

Can you talk about how the asylum system was designed for individuals? Can it handle, kind of a dysfunctional part of it, this sort of group?

Doris Meissner:

Well, it's certainly the case for the United States and other countries around the world that have had asylum systems really that flow from the post-World War II period.

But the asylum systems were never set up to manage and be responsive to huge humanitarian crises. So we have an asylum system that has worked pretty effectively until about the mid-20 teens. And at that time, across the Southwest border, which had not been a source of asylum seekers until just 10, 15 years ago, we began to see people from this hemisphere.

And they were seeking asylum because of the things that we have been talking about, but also because there aren't any other ways to access the United States for people who are looking for work in the country. So these are mixed flows. They are people that — some have some family members in the United States, are looking for jobs in the United States.

Some of them are eligible for asylum. Most of them are not. But asylum is the only way actually to get access to the U.S. immigration system, because our laws are so out of date.

Lisa Desjardins:

And so many legal pathways have closed.

Ruth, this has led to this huge backlog that we saw for asylum seekers already in this country. And I want to look at some statistics. This comes from Syracuse University and the data that they have gathered.

You talk about asylum right now. Current cases, not including the surge right now, current cases, more than a million people in the backlog for the asylum system waiting to be processed and get their day in court. The average time for them waiting for a hearing, almost four years.

And that number is actually higher in many other states. This is a big discussion in Congress. Can the current system ever handle this amount of people?

Ruth Wasem:

Well, yes.

One of the things that you have to bear in mind is that, when we ratchet up border security, which we have done over the last 25 years really, even before 9/11, we didn't do commensurate funding for the related portions of implementing that kind of policy. We didn't do commensurate spending for the asylum courts, for the immigration judges, for the other kinds of processing centers that are part and parcel of a more extensive border control strategy.

So I think that if we fully funded these other components of the judges, of asylum, of the processing centers, we would be better situated to process these asylum claims.

Lisa Desjardins:

What I hear is that we have gotten better at apprehension, but, at the same time, our system just is not handling the situation.

There are conversations in other countries, the E.U., which is talking about having easier ways to deport people that they feel do not qualify for asylum.

Just in the last minute or so we have left, a big challenge to both of you. What is the conversation you think we should be having?

Let me start with you, Ruth.

Ruth Wasem:

Well, I think we need to take a look at whether or not we need additional pathways.

There are a lot of individuals who probably meet the credible fear threshold, and I know we don't have time to discuss what that means, but they may not necessarily be refugees under the Cold War definition of a refugee. So, taking a more complete look at the pathways for someone to come into the United States, because we know immigration is a net good, that needs to be done.

But I also, in this last moment, want to say, the onus is on Congress. That's where the power resides. The executive branch can only work on the margins. Congress sets these laws and makes these decisions.

Doris Meissner:

Let me pick up on that, because, to me, the large question is, how does immigration fit in America's future?

We are a country that is aging. We are a country that has been the technology leader around the world. All of those things — and innovation is going to be our competitive advantage. Immigration is a critical element of America's success. We need to treat it as an asset, and we need to have a system that is actually aligned with our economic needs, as well as our humanitarian traditions going into the future.

And we're not having that conversation.

Lisa Desjardins:

Doris Meissner and Ruth Wasem, two of our great immigration experts, we have started a conversation here, and we thank you.

Ruth Wasem:

Thank you for having me.