Securing Our Borders, Securing Our Communities

America's Crumbling Border: The Big Picture

America’s border security problem is simple: It’s just too easy for unauthorized people to sneak across the border and too easy for migrants to claim asylum they don't qualify for.

In fiscal year 2022, the U.S. Border Patrol encountered over 2.3 million migrants trying to illegally cross the US-Mexico border. That’s the most on record. 

That same year, our Border Patrol: 

• Encountered 6,000 people every day trying to cross our border illegally. 
• Seized over 14,000 pounds of fentanyl, a drug that’s killing more Americans every year than guns and car crashes combined. 
• Fielded a record-breaking 250,000 requests for asylum.

Our immigration system is a disaster, failing U.S. communities and causing economic strain, putting pressure on social services, and raising security concerns. Our immigration system is failing migrants by creating desperate and unsafe conditions.

Common Sense Solutions

Strengthening America's Border Defense

The only ones who benefit from America’s immigration status quo are the drug cartels that make billions each year trafficking people and lethal drugs across our border.

To secure the border, America needs much more manpower. There are fewer than 17,000 agents stationed on the 1,954-mile-long US-Mexico border. That means each mile of the border, on average, has less than nine Border Patrol agents. Protecting our border also requires better security technology like biometric scanning cameras and sensors, improved data sharing between agencies, and even physical fortifications in some areas. 

Sorting Truths From Loopholes

We need to reform our broken asylum system. It is being abused by migrants who don’t meet the legal requirements for asylum, which according to U.S. law, is a “well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” 

During President Biden's time in office, around 55 percent of asylum seekers were told their reasons didn't qualify. However, most people who claim asylum are allowed to stay in the U.S. temporarily and are given dates for court hearings, which can take more than four years to happen. Many never show up for their eventual day in court. 

Meanwhile, there are nearly 790,000 pending asylum cases, and only 650 immigration judges hearing those cases. Just to clear the existing backlog, each judge would have to decide over 1,200 cases. That’s a big challenge because, on average, a judge completed only 87 cases in the 2022 fiscal year.

Repairing the Process for All

This isn’t working for Americans, and it certainly isn’t working for the asylum seekers, as they aren’t authorized to work while waiting for a hearing. That forces them into the underground economy where they aren’t paying taxes and can be exploited by unethical employers. 

So America needs more immigration judges, but we also need them dealing with fewer cases. That’s why the commonsense majority approves of asylum process changes like former President Trump’s so-called Remain in Mexico policy or President Biden’s similar rule, which requires most asylum seekers to wait outside the U.S. until they book an appointment through the government app, CBP One.

Do you want to see America regaining control of its borders and revamping the asylum process?

Read Common Sense Majority's official policy on Immigration and Border Security here.