Releasing people into US for 'years' will draw more illegal immigrants to come, former Obama ICE director says

May 14, 2023

A former ICE director under Barack Obama said Friday on CNN that the current U.S. immigration policy of releasing migrants into the country to await asylum hearings for "years" is only going to encourage more illegal immigrants to come.

Look, I hate to say it, a lot of the people, the majority of the people we’re seeing in these images…will be released into the United States," John Sandweg said. "They will be subject to enforcement. They will have court dates, but those court dates won’t be for three, four, five years before there’s a decision on their asylum case. And it’s just — that’s what’s going to continue to draw people here."

The fact is that most border crossers don't get asylum, so they will build lives in this country and then likely be told they have to leave -- if they show up to their hearing, which many won't.

Sandweg said the current system is unworkable because of the years-long backlog and called for more funding to cut down the timeline and make the system more workable.

"I want to give asylum to people who deserve it, but, at the same time, we just can’t take three, four, five years to make a determination,” he said.

We certainly can't handle an ever-increasing flood of migrants, most of which are not actually eligible to stay in the U.S. but are doing so anyway because of the flawed system.