Thread by @Headsnipe011

As Caravan Nears, Grassley, Lee Call on State, DHS to Explore Asylum Agreement with Mexico

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judiciary.senate.gov/press/rep/rele…

Obama-era DHS memo noted ‘trends in migration’ of potential security threats
WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) called on the Trump Administration to seek an agreement with Mexico to assist in...

accommodating a steady stream of migrants traveling through Mexico seeking asylum. The senators noted acknowledgements by Obama Administration officials that potential security threats are exploiting immigration vulnerabilities to enter the United States.

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the senators urged the Trump Administration to adopt a safe third country agreement with Mexico similar to an existing agreement between the United States and Canada.

Safe third country agreements require migrants seeking asylum to make their claim in the first country of arrival rather than passing through to another country. Such an agreement would serve American interests by helping to prevent expanded asylum claim backlogs and...

promoting national security by further disrupting migration of Special Interest Aliens, whom the Obama Administration noted are seeking entry into the United States.

“We know now that this caravan, as it stands currently, is not entirely comprised of Central American asylum seekers. As then-President Obama’s own Homeland Security Secretary, Jeh Johnson, noted in an agency memorandum,

titled Cross-Border Movement of Special Interest Aliens: ‘we must continually evaluate our border and port of entry security posture to ensure our resources are appropriately aligned to address trends in the migration of SIAs,’” the senators wrote.

“For over a decade now, United States sovereignty has been tested and too often disregarded. Under President Trump’s Administration, and due in large part to both of your efforts, the United States is finally in a position to secure our border and reinstitute law and order.

We strongly urge you – on the eve of a new Mexican presidential administration – to set the tone for American sovereignty in the twenty-first century.

Entering into a safe third country agreement with Mexico would send a message to our partners across Central America that they too must share the burden of unsanctioned mass migration."

Grassley has previously raised concern about reports that migrants with ties to terrorism or from countries known to be a high risk for anti-American terrorism are joining smuggling rings in Central America in order to enter the United States via the Southern border.

Grassley’s and Lee’s letter to Nielsen and Pompeo follows:

***What I posted yesterday.***

judiciary.senate.gov/download/2018-…