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The Truth About Immigration: Asylum
A look at the facts about migrants seeking asylum in the United States, the legalities of doing so, and how the asylum process is supposed to work.
Anti-immigrant rhetoric is currently running rampant online. Many bloggers and far-right outlets expose how little they know about immigration as they try to define their position in claiming that they are not against immigration in general, but simply against illegal immigration.
Let’s not be naive about it. If you know and understand dog-whistles, then you know what and where this rhetoric was born of. It is language that has been perpetuated for over a century in the United States.
What we’re hearing isn’t new. It’s just much louder.
Most of it is derived from the notion that the only avenue to become a legal immigrant in the United States is to apply in one’s home country and simply wait it out as the process takes its course. While there is some truth to that, it’s not quite that simple. Nor is that the only way by which to seek legal status.
In this piece, I want to focus specifically on the asylum aspect of immigration policy and law while addressing the complexities of the process. It’s not as simple as the Breitbarts and Alex Jones’ of the world would have you believe.
