Hearing about mounting backlog in the processing of asylum requests in the U.S. is only to be expected, although one would think that the previously reported move to seek the hand of technology to hasten the pace was a good sign.
The problem is, that proposal is still up in the air and may take some time to be implemented. Hence the state of most immigrants right now undergoing the necessary procedures may not improve at all.
For varied reasons, there are people who are seeking asylum to get better opportunity and safeguard themselves and their families. But the thing is that there are complications.
The process for one person does not necessarily mean that his or her family are automatically included. In fact, the process calls for an individual type of a setup where cases need to be re-filed again.
And such is one of the many reasons why the asylum petitions have increased by approximately 800%, a not so alarming increase considering the process that immigrants have to go through. The fact that an individual would have to wait for months to years alone is evidence that unless something drastic is applied to improve the whole process, those numbers will continue to soar.
The Obama administration has tried to remedy it by adding more asylum officers and assign them to the U.S. border to help facilitate interviews faster. However, it seems that the swelling numbers are just too enormous to overcome.
Mexico is tightening immigration inspections, as well.
And with stricter measures reportedly set to be implemented for pedestrians, such is expected to cause even more delays. However, the tactic is said to be something that would to try and process as many people as possible, provided they carry proper documentation.
To properly disseminate the people crossing the border, there will reportedly be two pedestrian lanes – one for foreigners and another for Mexican citizens.
"Our intention is to try different strategies to process as many people as we can within a reasonable time frame," says Rodulfo Figueroa, head of Mexico's National Migrant Institute in the Mexican state of Baja California.
