Key GOP lawmaker open to Biden administration asylum reform amid migrant surge

Rep. Ben Cline, new chairman of the Republican Study Committee’s Budget and Spending Task Force, discusses current plans for reducing government spending. The Virginia Congressman also discusses Biden’s first trip “near the Border,” saying Biden “needs to stay down there until he actually gets to see for himself the horrors that are happening at the border when it comes to the drugs that are being trafficked, the human trafficking that's occurring, the abuse that's occurring to children and to women, it is a tragedy of immense proportions.” Commenting, “I'm glad the political pressure has gotten so intense that he actually had to check the box to actually say, well, I've been near the border, that's more than his ‘Border Czar’ has been able to do for for many months. But now we really do need to take that trip and actually turn it into action.” The Congressman says that one of the most immediate reforms that can be done is to the United States “asylum laws.” Saying, recently the Biden “administration actually had a glimmer of some recognition when they said, instead of making the journey,” we want [Migrants] to be able to have asylum claim adjudicated back in their home country. Cline remarking, “that's the type of reform that I think you could get some agreement, to try and open up embassies to receiving these types of requests for asylum, but then also reforming our asylum laws. Because America is the richest country in the world, trying to get to America simply to have a better life is not grounds for asylum. And so we need to firm up those asylum laws to prevent uncertainty about those types of claims, to prevent the type of journey that's occurring, and maybe if it happens from the country of origin, you might be able to keep them from making that journey in the first place.”

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.