OPINION:
President Trump deserves kudos for the recent agreement with Mexico. He appears to have at last found a means of working around an obtuse, obstinate and obstructive Congress and outlaw judges who thwart any real attempts to address illegal immigration.
A Mexican official said that their goal would be to reduce the flow to last year’s average of 50,000 per month. Admittedly, that is an improvement over the current totals of 100,000-plus per month. However, that goal number means that instead of being inundated with over a million a year, it would be about 600,000. That’s still too many illegals.
The flow must end. It is hoped that Mexico will exceed its projection.
Furthermore, the fact of the estimated 1-million-plus who entered from 2018 to 2019, as well as the 30 million-plus who preceded them, must be dealt with.
It is said that the crux of the problem in addressing illegal immigration is the huge backlog. Well, there is a simple solution: Reverse the order of hearing the cases. The more recent cases should be heard first. That way the backlog would not increase and it would be possible to decrease it a lot more quickly. Genuine asylum claims could then be more rapidly separated from false ones.
The reverse-order method in conjunction with the terms recently worked out with Mexico could bring an end to the problem sooner. It is certainly worthy of consideration.
HESSIE L. HARRIS
Silver Spring, Md.
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