Under U.S. law, if people get across the border into the U.S., they are entitled to apply for asylum, and then stick around in the U.S. for a long time while they wait to get a court date.  That's the customary way many illegal aliens game our system to get access to the U.S.  But President Trump is throwing a monkey wrench (not meant to be a racial term!) into their plans by reducing access to asylum for the mass of illegals on our southern border.

A simple two-lane bridge spans the Rio Grande between Ciudad Miguel Aleman, Mexico, and Roma, Texas, sleepy sister cities that have long accommodated a steady flow of traffic back and forth across the border.

Dozens of families from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Peru, some with babies only a few months old, have spent weeks living on the Mexican side of the bridge, waiting to be admitted to the United States as asylum seekers.

U.S.-Mexico border near Laredo (credit: U.S. Customs and Border Protection).

Why are women taking babies who were just born on a long and dangerous trip to America?  What was the urgency?  That seems like child abuse.

"Every morning we come, we wait in line," said Marco Estrada, who was a grocery clerk in Honduras.  He arrived with his 2-year-old daughter nine days ago, hoping to reach relatives in North Carolina.  A gang had threatened him in Honduras, he said.

What about Mexico?  Why can't Mr. Estrada apply for asylum there?

Those seeking asylum say they presented their documents to U.S. Customs officials on the bridge.  But the officials said the families have to wait on the Mexican side because there isn't enough space for them to be processed.

Ruben Garcia, founder of the El Paso-based advocacy group Annunciation House, said the delays appear to be part of a strategy to block asylum seekers.

"They are using the pretext [that] we have to be judicious in recognition of our resources, our facilities are not set up to accommodate a lot of people, we can only receive them as we have space.  They are using that tactic as a way to push people out and deny people asylum," Garcia said.

I certainly hope so.

"It's happening through all the border crossings," he said. "You'll see the same thing in El Paso, in Nogales, in Laredo, Calexico – it's a border-wide policy."

It's not clear how long families stranded on the bridges can last.

Maybe just long enough to turn around and go home or apply for asylum in Mexico?

Requesting asylum in Mexico wasn't an option, said those on the bridge: They would have more trouble finding work there, and they feared crime in Mexico as much as in their home countries in Central America.

So they could apply for asylum in Mexico, but they just prefer going to America.  Does this sound like the desperation of people fearing for their lives?

Under U.S. law, the grounds for asylum are as follows:

[P]eople come to the United States seeking protection because they have suffered persecution or fear that they will suffer persecution due to:

·       Race

·       Religion

·       Nationality

·       Membership in a particular social group

·       Political opinion

There is no category for people who don't like the crime in their communities.  Nor is there a category for people who want a job.  All those mothers toting their newly born babies expect the American taxpayer to take care of them.  They are flagrantly abusing the asylum system.

Let's hope President Trump puts enough bureaucratic obstacles in their way to discourage more of them from crossing the border.  Liberals are also screaming that children are being separated from their parents.  Attorney General Sessions says that if parents don't want that to happen, they shouldn't cross the border illegally.

Congress put into place these ridiculous laws that encourage illegals to abuse our asylum system.  It is to President Trump's credit that he is attempting to mobilize (or immobilize) the administrative state to make it a less attractive proposition to illegals.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.