Next Time You Manage to Escape From Your War-Ravaged Country Without Documents, Try Miami

Kerry Howley | February 10, 2005

According to a federal study, whether asylum seekers are granted refuge depends largely on where they first arrive. The New York Times reports that the Big Apple is an unfortunate choice:

By any measure, Kennedy Airport stands apart as the toughest for asylum seekers. It was the only airport in the nation where shackles were routinely used, the only place where intensely personal interviews were typically conducted at public counters, and the airport where federal border agents sent the most people back to their home country immediately - nearly 11,000 in a three-year period, or five times the number sent for in-depth interviews with an asylum officer, the report said.

Meanwhile, the House just voted on a bill that would make it easier to deport those who make it through the interrogation process and out of the airport.

Comments

|2.10.05 @ 5:04PM|#

Pay no attention to that big statute in the harbor. It is there for ironic purposes only.

The Lonewacko Blog|2.10.05 @ 10:50PM|#

I posted this a while back. Plus ca y les nommes change...

Getting into the U.S. via Ellis Island was actually fairly difficult. Steamship companies were charged an additional fee if someone they brought over was rejected. Did you know that, __Lady Liberty's Lover__?

Mike|2.11.05 @ 10:15AM|#

Getting into the U.S. via Ellis Island was actually fairly difficult.

20 million people went through Ellis Island, with about 2% being rejected. Using the figures in the writeup above you can estimate that about 83% of the people coming through Kennedy are rejected. I think it's safe to say, even if the numbers are off by an order of magnitude, Kennedy is still significantly harder than Ellis Island was.

The Lonewacko Blog|2.11.05 @ 3:51PM|#

Let's try this again:

Steamship companies were charged an additional fee if someone they brought over was rejected.

In other words, pre-screening was in a state of existence. Let me know when airlines pre-screen asylum seekers.