How do we handle asylum seekers?

We haven’t heard much about the ‘invasion’ on our southern border recently. That in itself is interesting, but not the point of my letter. I recently read a comment by a Trump supporter that it was terrible how much the asylum seekers are costing us because they have to be detained in camps. Really.

First of all, it isn’t that many people. Immigration into the United States is lower than anytime recently. The numbers in the ‘invasion’ are less than the attendance at many football games or other events. But we still hear, ‘why don’t they come in legally?’ Well, it IS legal to ask for asylum, but the Trump administration has closed many of the legal Ports of Entry, so people who have traveled many, many miles, some of them with small children and babies, are stuck at the border. Tear gas that isn’t even allowed in the army has been used against them.

But the problem could be solved so quickly and easily. Instead of spending $700 a day per person for detention camps for children, and soldiers stringing razor wire, let the usual processes happen. Employ more people to process asylum seekers if necessary, but process and decide, and then let seekers wait, on their own, for the outcome. Help if necessary with that resettlement, and give them back their children! The ‘invaders’ could be processed in a few weeks at a fraction of the cost.

Then press Congress to get serious about solving immigration issues.