The Trump administration’s new asylum rule was announced yesterday, and the liberal gnashing of teeth has begun. Fresh from their appalling comparisons of US holding facilities for illegal aliens to concentration camps, the left is now squealing shrilly about the heartless Trump making it impossible for migrants to seek asylum.

Trump is a hypocrite, they claim. The President’s own grandfather had to beg the prince regent of Bavaria not to deport him and his family – a plea which was subsequently rejected by Prince Luitpold, forcing Friedrich Trump to return to New York. Therefore, he should have more heart, they claim.

Uh…

Friedrich Trump obtained US citizenship after he immigrated to the US, and then decided to head back home to Bavaria. There was no economic hardship. There was nothing that was endangering the life of him or his family in the United States. According to the letter, Trump’s wife did not like the climate, and given his failure to complete mandatory military service in Germany, his plea was denied.

What has that to do with anything? Beats me.

Trump is mean and evil. These people are here seeking safety and shelter from gangs, crime, drugs, etc. They want economic opportunities offered by the United States, and who can blame them? They can earn more here than they could in their countries of origin. They have protections. They have access to clean water and free schooling for their kids, as well as other infrastructure. It’s a great place to thrive and raise families, no matter what shrill, evil shrews like Ilhan Omar will tell you about how disappointed they are by this nation that has given her great opportunities, an education, and even allowed her to be elected to Congress! And Trump’s new asylum rule is limiting their opportunities.

To be eligible for asylum or refugee status, the applicant must be unable or unwilling to return to his or her country of nationality because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. That’s not heartless; that’s the law, and Barack Obama acknowledged this.

Last year, 65 percent of asylum applications were denied – an increase in denials that began in Fiscal Year 2015 under Barack Obama.

Crime sucks. Poverty sucks. But that’s not enough to be granted asylum. And it’s certainly not enough to break down the fence, invade our country, and demand to be allowed to stay, while complaining about the conditions in which you’re staying.

Our country is not easy. It certainly cannot process the thousands and thousands of asylum seekers who are invading our borders, and our new asylum rule is meant not just to relieve the massive pressure on our immigration system, but also allow those seeking asylum in our nation not to be held in overcrowded detention centers, victims of a system that’s just not equipped to process so many people on a daily basis!

The United States has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of aliens encountered along or near the southern land border with Mexico. This increase corresponds with a sharp increase in the number, and percentage, of aliens claiming fear of persecution or torture when apprehended or encountered by DHS. For example, over the past decade, the overall percentage of aliens subject to expedited removal and referred, as part of the initial screening process, for a credible-fear interview on claims of a fear of return has jumped from approximately 5 percent to above 40 percent. The number of cases referred to DOJ for proceedings before an immigration judge has also risen sharply, more than tripling between 2013 and 2018. These numbers are projected to continue to increase throughout the remainder of Fiscal Year (“FY”) 2019 and beyond. Only a small minority of these individuals, however, are ultimately granted asylum.

The new asylum rule adds a “new mandatory bar to eligibility for asylum for an alien who enters or attempts to enter the United States across the southern border, but who did not apply for protection from persecution or torture where it was available in at least one third country outside the alien’s country of citizenship, nationality, or last lawful habitual residence through which he or she transited en route to the United States, such as in Mexico via that country’s robust protection regime.”

If the individual is really seeking asylum based on persecution for race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group, or political views, they should be just fine seeking that status in Mexico first.

But, despite what the left will claim, many migrants are not fleeing persecution, but merely feel entitled to better economic opportunities. As Kim wrote a few weeks ago about that heart-wrenching photo of a migrant father and his little girl that the liberals had been using as political props, “Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez, the father, and his wife Tania were not asylum seekers. They weren’t even unemployed. Oscar had a job in a Papa Johns pizza shop, and Tania actually quit her job in a Chinese restaurant to take care of their daughter Valeria.”

This, of course, didn’t stop Kamala Harris and others from using their tragic deaths as fodder for their “Trump is mean to asylum seekers” narrative.

These families seeking asylum are often fleeing extreme violence. And what happens when they arrive? Trump says, ‘Go back to where you came from.’ That is inhumane. Children are dying. This is a stain on our moral conscience. https://t.co/NHly7QTiAq — Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 26, 2019

And as more and more migrants attempt to crash the gates and gain admission to the US by claiming asylum, courts are overwhelmed, as are holding facilities for migrants.

So in an effort to stem the flow, the US has moved to limit the ability of Central American migrants to seek asylum here, if they haven’t sought asylum in another country first. And this is just not good enough for some people like Pedro Luis Ruíz, who is waiting his turn in Mexico for an asylum hearing in the US based on his fear of political persecution in his native Cuba, and who is no longer eligible to just step foot into the US after Barack Obama ended the “Wet Foot, Dry Foot” program for Cubans that allowed most Cuban migrants who reach US soil to stay and become legal permanent residents after one year.

“President Trump has the right to think as he wishes, but in this case he is wrong,” said Mr. Ruiz, a Cuban activist who joined an underground opposition party and said he can’t return to Cuba for fear of political persecution. “I will not feel protected anywhere in the world other than the U.S.”

As much sympathy as I feel for Mr. Ruiz, the fact that he won’t “feel protected” anywhere else does not entitle him to circumvent the law, even though his is the type of asylum application that would likely be approved based on USCIS regulations.

And while Democrats whine about this new asylum rule, they refuse to do their jobs and make laws to remedy the situation.

While they whine about overcrowding, they encourage employees of companies that make beds for migrant holding facilities to stop working.

Wayfair workers couldn’t stomach they were making beds to cage children. They asked the company to stop. CEO said no. Tomorrow, they‘re walking out. This is what solidarity looks like – a reminder that everyday people have real power, as long as we’re brave enough to use it. https://t.co/667abeLDTG — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 25, 2019

While they squeal about the conditions in these holding facilities, they condemn efforts to at least slow the flow of migrants, so that fewer are kept in these detention facilities and can await their asylum hearings in Mexico, which is exactly what this new asylum rule is meant to do.

They can’t have it both ways. Fix the broken immigration system. Increase border security. Prevent overcrowding by stemming the flow of migrants and their fraudulent asylum applications that overburden US courts. This is all within the power of Congress.

But apparently, it’s easier to complain and use tragedies as political fodder than actually do anything about it.

Featured image: johnhain on Pixabay; resized, Pixabay License