For a while there, an orderly border entry process was taking place at Tijuana, with thousands of applicants for asylum taking a number and waiting their turn to make their claims.  It made more sense to immigrate legally than illegally, given that President Trump issued a national security order saying that asylum claims would be processed only at a U.S. port of entry.  This was why the Tijuana residents protested the other day – they didn't want these people hanging around, given the large numbers of criminals in their ranks, 500 at last count, and the arrogance, trashing, and thievery they demonstrated rolling in.

Now a federal judge has changed all that, leaving flimsy razor wire or even less the only thing separating the U.S. from tens of thousands of caravan migrants making their way into the States.  According to the New York Times:

LOS ANGELES – A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to resume accepting asylum claims from migrants no matter where or how they entered the United States, dealing at least a temporary setback to the president's attempt to clamp down on a huge wave of Central Americans crossing the border.

Judge Jon S. Tigar of the United States District Court in San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order that blocks the government from carrying out a new rule that denies protections to people who enter the country illegally. The order, which suspends the rule until the case is decided by the court, applies nationally.

And according to the Associated Press:

But in his ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar agreed with legal groups that immediately sued, arguing that U.S. immigration law clearly allows someone to seek asylum even if they enter the country between official ports of entry.

"Whatever the scope of the President's authority, he may not rewrite the immigration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden," said Tigar, a nominee of former President Barack Obama.

Note that interesting use of language – "enter the country between ports of entry" – to describe what had previously been called sneaking across the border and breaking in illegally.

With that ruling, who is going to wait in line in Tijuana to file his phony asylum claim if he can get across illegally and file their asylum claim right then and there?

Why wait in line for six months at the border to get an asylum claim processed when on some desert crossing, you can turn yourself over to a Customs and Border Patrol agent, and get the initial asylum claim processed right then and there?  Talk about on-the-spot customer service!  And, unlike other forms of legal migration, applying for asylum, frivolously or not, literally costs nothing.

After that, you are free to move about the country (and work) as you await your court date some two years on.  And that is if you choose to show up.  Many don't, and of those who do, well, they got two years in to work in the States free and clear, whether the asylum claim was valid or not, which is what many caravaners have told the press they want, so can take their earnings home upon deportation.

Catch and release is back in a big way.

The judge justified his ruling according to the reasoning of the leftwing lawyers, who included the ACLU, by saying people are in danger, despite the fact that these asylum applicants are in Mexico, not their Central American countries of origin, where they have already been offered jobs, asylum, and perks for staying.  They aren't in the slightest danger, and if you listen to the Tijuana residents, who launched an organized protest over the weekend, they are the danger, given their penchant for looting, stealing, and throwing trash around, as well as insulting the natives, their city, and even their cuisine (as "fit only for pigs").  The federal judge's ruling is claptrap.

What makes this dangerous is that President Trump is determined to stop the border-crossers and has sent troops, now with enhanced powers, to stop the flood of migrants from getting in.  The legal measure ensured that the action would take place only at ports of entry.  But the leftist leaders of the migrant caravan, led by acolytes of former "cowboy hat" deposed president Mel Zelaya, an admirer of Hugo Chávez, are just as determined to get in, by fair means or foul, by left-wing lawyers, or by force.  They mean to get in no matter what, ultimately to force the U.S. to abandon any border enforcement.  Their caravan project is basically a political project, not a charity project, led with the Honduran banner.  This also explains the huge presence of criminals and angry uneducated military-aged young men in their ranks, all potential enforcers and shock troops, even as a few women and children are put before the news cameras.  Climbing the razor wire or crossing a dusty desert pass is no problem for them, and the caravan mission organizers know it.

This means that confrontation is inevitable.  If crossing the border illegally is more profitable than crossing the border legally, who is going to do it legally?  And if Trump is determined to ensure that the U.S. does not become the next Europe, where millions of migrants have turned that continent into a crime-infested hellhole with stone-age values, how can this not lead to something violent happening?

The federal judge who got rid of Trump's reasonable ruling to restore rule of law in favor of lawless crossings at the border is going to responsible for whatever violence happens.  One can only hope the appeals courts can reverse his call for border disorder as soon as possible.

Image credit: NBC7 San Diego screenshot.