Of course it is and the Dems have always been against it. That's why they object to ICE focussing on asylum seekers and refugees rather than the illegals working for corporate agribusiness.
Seems like ICE has been targeting a bit of both...
My position on the matter of asylum seekers and refugees would very different if we weren't operating on such a weak standard that it's almost borderline laughable.
If they were able to reach some sort of compromise in DC about a more rigid, clearly defined, and crystalized definition of what constitutes a valid asylum claim (that incorporates the "first-nation" principle), then I'd have no problem being welcoming to all legitimate asylum seekers.
But right now, we take everything from
Legitimate asylum seekers (fleeing direct persecution by their governments)
to
People who may have a legitimate reason for wanting to claim asylum, but want to shop around and go through multiple countries to get to "a good one, with nice benefits"
to
The downright silly "I drank the Kool-Aid, voted for terrible candidates with terrible policies, now everything sucks here economically, so I want to claim I'm in danger so I can go live somewhere else"
That issue is actually far worse in Europe (hence the reason there are so many protests over there an right-wing parties are gaining traction)
The Syrian Refugee crisis highlighted that... there's no doubt that there were people who had a legitimate reason for fleeing Syria, but when they travel through 5-6 other countries (that would actually be a better fit culturally speaking) so they can end up in Sweden (because that's where the good benefits are), that highlighted a bit of a problem.
We have a similar thing here... Venezuelans (who voted those economy destroying policies into place) wanting to flee bad economic conditions via an asylum claim, pass through numerous other Spanish-speaking, culturally-similar, countries to make an asylum claim at the US border.
If a Venezuelan was actually under direct threat from their government and needed to flee... Columbia, Panama, Costa Rica, and Mexico aren't good enough?
The purpose of Asylum and Refugee provisions are to protect people from being persecuted by their government, it's not supposed to be for people to escape a country for purely economic reasons, then shop around for which country offers the best social benefits.
In looking it up, it would seem the most common route is:
Venezuela → Colombia → Darién Gap → Panama → Costa Rica → Nicaragua → Honduras → Guatemala → Mexico → U.S. border
Seems like that process should stop at Columbia...or at the very least, Costa Rica.
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