He was one of the first asylum-seekers sent back to Mexico under the Trump Administration's policy. Now, Barnard said, after waiting in Mexico for six months for his court date, Alec may be the first under that policy to be granted refugee-status by an American immigration judge.

The press, in San Diego, at least, is making a big deal about a Honduran migrant who as part of the "remain in Mexico" program has won asylum in the U.S., while the U.S., wickedly enough, wants to appeal that ruling . Here's the local NPR affiliate, KPBS's report:

"We thought after waiting six months, after filing hundreds of pages of evidence to support his claim, and spending hours in court yesterday testifying, and the judge granting him protection, that his fight would be over," Barnard said. Instead, after the judge's decision, a lawyer from the Department of Homeland Security announced that Alec would be taken back into Customs and Border Protection custody until the government could decide if it wants to appeal the decision.

In other asylum cases, once an asylum-seeker is granted refugee status, they're [sic] immediately released from custody. According to Barnard, Alec had already been given a security clearance from the government to be released from custody, and already had arranged for a sponsor to house him once he was released.

It's possible that the government will now insist on sending Alec back to Mexico while the government appeals the asylum decision.

Bad, bad U.S. for wanting to keep someone out who won't bother to apply legally to come here and, for that matter, can't seem to make a go of things in Mexico, either. The NGOs are all over this one, thinking they have the perfect wedge for allowing millions of unvetted migrants in now because this one looks so camera-genic and his story is so perfect for winning Evangelical Christians over to their side.

U.S. opposition is likely based on the thinking that this is another abuser of the asylum system.

Why? Because it's so common. And how are those cases going? Well, I looked up the most famous face from last year's caravan, Mirian Zelaya, famously known as "Lady Frijoles," the ungrateful Honduran migrant who came up with the caravan and told the press she was seeking free health care for her daughter (who, as it turns out, might not be her daughter) and was upset that the Mexican tortillas and beans the volunteers were feeding her in Tijuana was food "fit for pigs."

When Mexicans protested her ingratitude, she got to slip into the U.S. ahead of the others waiting in line, getting asylum claim service first. The D.W. reporter who unwittingly made the damning pig-food video loudly defended her as a model migrant. She turned up in Dallas, residing with her illegal alien sister who was under a deportation order. The pair of them then assaulted with a deadly weapon the lady who had given them housing. The two then went to jail and were last seen facing two to twenty in the can, with Lady Frijoles's lawyer predicting a dim outlook for Lady Frijoles's case. I wrote about that here.

What's the story now?

There were no two years in the can for either of them. despite the "mandatory" two-year floor, according to her lawyer. They ended up with four years' probation, a $1,000 fine, and orders to stay away from the woman they assaulted, according to Telemundo (in Spanish). They were told they could serve their "sentence," if that is what you want to call it, in Honduras so long as they filed prompt reports to the probation officers.

Think they'll comply? The woman's sister didn't even have to comply with a deportation order. Yes, sure, they'll file promptly with the courts.

Between that and two to twenty in prison, who wouldn't take that?

They were last seen flashing their boobs and eating birthday cake for the cameras on Instagram.

So much for forking out asylum based on that the tale of woe about needing free health care for that kid. So much for the terrible fate of being fed Mexican pig food. So much for being all pitiful for the cameras and requiring a zoom to the front of the line for protection.

What we are seeing is a U.S. asylum system easily co-opted by grifters. These people weren't poor and pitiful — their prosperity is quite obvious. They're whooping it up in their party pictures now in Honduras instead of locked into a U.S. jail for assault with a deadly weapon. Would a U.S. citizen who committed the same crime under a mandatory two-year sentencing framework have gotten the same? Not at all.

It goes to show what a racket the U.S. asylum system has become with, huge numbers of people who don't qualify for asylum gaming the system to the hilt. It's incredible, really, given that deportation is offered as a substitute for mandatory jail sentences and that deportation, far from being a fate worse than death as the activists say, is actually an easy escape hatch from any responsibility. The non-government organizations who are defending and advocating for asylum for this migrant in this current case are about as credible as the media who played up Lady Frijoles' plight during the caravan days in Mexico, promoting the sob story to tug on our heartstrings.

The reality is repeatedly different, as the Lady Frijoles case demonstrates. That woman should never have been allowed into the U.S. as an asylum seeker. She followed up with the commission of crimes to show her 'gratitude and then got off scot free ith a much lighter term than an American who committed the same crime. Now she's partying hearty back home. Who says crime doesn't pay?

Image credit: Mundo Hispanico screen shot from shareable video.