On Wednesday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” Senator Angus King (I-ME) said the Department of Homeland Security “must get serious about the record-keeping issues that allowed visa overstays.” ‘ said. He also said, “If someone claims their home country is in danger and goes through three or four different countries, why should they come here?” Why wouldn’t they be safe going to another country? I think it’s a natural question that we have to grapple with. “
Mr King said, [relevant remarks begin around 6:15] “Fifty percent of illegal immigrants in the U.S. enter legally with a visa of some kind and overstay. I think that’s the first step.As far as the border is concerned, the real problem is asylum.These are not necessarily people who are sneaking across the border or swimming in the river.They are putting their lives in danger. Those who have come under our law, claiming asylum because they have been in. The question is, are those claims valid, and are they reasonable, rather than waiting years for judgment in the United States? Do we have the infrastructure in place to determine that valid claim within a reasonable period of time? There is no government, no courts, no infrastructure, and the question I asked, and I’ve been asking all along, is if someone claims to be at risk in their home country and has to travel through three or four different countries. If so, why should they come here, why aren’t they safe in another country?
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