Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” House Homeland Security Committee chairman Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) explained how many from the caravan of migrants who are charged thousands of dollars by drug cartels that control human smuggling routes also train them “to say the words ‘credible fear of persecution.'”
According to the Texas Republican, this is done so that a judge will allow them to stay in the United States.
When asked how many in the caravan are legitimate asylum cases, McCaul said, “I would say very few. I think the drug cartels train them to say the words ‘credible fear of persecution.’ And if they say those magic words, in many of these cases the judge will allow them to stay in the country. When the secretary testified for my committee, we talked about closing legal loopholes. The American people are going to see this caravan episode play out, and my prediction is that many of the thousands that are in detention space south of San Diego will end up staying in the United States.”
McCaul said, “The bill that I filed with the chairman of Judiciary, which raises a higher threshold, if you will, for a burden of proof when it comes to credible fear of persecution to claim asylum in the United States. Right now, the standard is very low and they know that, and to get around that the cartel is teaching them the magic words. Once they say that, they are allowed under current law to stay in the United States, and that is why Congress needs to act.”
He continued, “In fact, drug cartels are the very ones who have escorted them through Mexico, and now you see them climbing this physical barricade coming into the United States.”
He added, “Under the human trafficking law of 2008, they are detained and released if they are an unaccompanied minor, and then, of course, the parents claim political asylum, that’s how they get into the country as well. This is a gaming the system.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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