An immigration judge has denied asylum to the family of young Ecuadoran national Liam Conejo Ramos, the boy photographed in a bunny hat as he was detained with his father by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis.
The case highlights everything wrong with the Biden administration’s policy of treating all illegal entrants as “asylum-seekers.”
Even under Trump II, the US has the most generous immigration system in the world.
An average of 1 million-plus immigrants receive green cards each year, allowing them to live here permanently and placing them on a path to citizenship.
And more than 130 million times per annum, aliens are admitted as “nonimmigrants” with permission to enter and stay temporarily as tourists, students, shoppers and for business.
For the Biden administration, however, it wasn’t enough: To advance “equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity,” the Department of Homeland Security under impeached Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas opened the borders and welcomed nearly 8 million illegal aliens into the United States.
Unlikely claims
Former President Joe Biden treated them all as “asylum-seekers,” even though they likely didn’t qualify as such.
The Ramos family reportedly arrived during the last month of the prior administration and were ushered in to pursue their claims even though it appears they had no legal documents — and that few Ecuadoran nationals are granted asylum.
Asylum is a lavish exception to our already generous legal immigration system. Aliens who receive that protection are placed on a path to green cards, and ultimately citizenship.
But the standards for granting asylum are strict: Aliens must show they’ve been persecuted or have a “well-founded fear of persecution” on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.
“Economic migrants” aren’t eligible, and if the US granted asylum to everyone seeking a “better life,” nearly all the world’s population would qualify.
It’s unclear what dangers the Ramos family claimed they feared.
As in many countries, police abuses and corruption are issues in Ecuador — but, as the State Department is quick to note, the government there “took steps to investigate and prosecute officials who committed human rights abuses and against those accused of corruption.”
Not surprisingly, therefore, immigration judges approved only one-eighth of all Ecuadoran asylum claims in fiscal year 2025.
Despite that fact, Border Patrol apprehended more than 116,000 Ecuadoran nationals at the southern border during Biden’s last full fiscal year, and nearly 114,000 more in fiscal year 2023.
The vast majority were released to pursue asylum claims that were never going to be approved.
For most migrants cut loose under Biden, however, receiving asylum was never the point. The point was a quick release, so they could live and work here while their claims slowly wended their way through the system.
Seekers & suckers
The handful of migrants entering illegally now who claim asylum must do so from detention. That’s the way the system is supposed to work; so they can’t exploit our compassion simply to increase their wages.
Struggling American workers suffered under Biden’s “quick release” policies, because they were forced to compete against increasing numbers of illegal foreign nationals for low-skilled jobs. But the last administration was willing to tolerate their pain to advance its open-border goals.
Most agree the United States should remain a haven for the truly oppressed, but Americans don’t like being played for suckers. Biden’s migrant carny game is over, but the consequences will linger for years.
Andrew Arthur is the fellow in Law and Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
