Word: asylums
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...education systems. To compound the confusion, many Americans believe -- wrongly -- that more foreigners enter the country illegally than do legally. As the doubts grow, so does the potential for backlash. Polls show that almost two-thirds of Americans favor new laws to cut back on all immigrants and asylum seekers -- legal as well as illegal. Though immigration is often regarded as a single issue, some distinctions are important...
...Asylum seekers. Until a few years ago, applications were rare, totaling 200 in 1975. Suddenly, asylum is the plea of choice in the U.S. and around the world, often as a cover for economic migration. U.S. applications were up to 103,000 last year, and the backlog tops 300,000 cases. Under the present asylum rules, practically anyone who declares that he or she is fleeing political oppression has a good chance to enter the U.S. Chinese are almost always admitted, for example, if they claim that China's birth-control policies have limited the number of children they...
Right now, once aliens enter the U.S., it is almost impossible to deport them, even if they have no valid documents. Thousands of those who enter illegally request asylum only if they are caught. The review process can take 10 years or more, and applicants often simply disappear while it is under way. Asylum cases are piling up faster than they can be cleared, with the Immigration and Naturalization Service falling farther behind every year. At her confirmation hearings at the end of September, Doris Meissner, Clinton's nominee as commissioner of the INS, conceded, "The asylum system is broken...
...rising to do something about immigration, Clinton felt he had to get out and lead -- if for no other reason than to head off draconian legislative proposals already in the works. The President put forward measures last July to tighten screening of potential immigrants abroad, speed deportations of phony asylum seekers and add 600 officers to the border patrol. "We will not," he declared, "surrender our borders to those who wish to exploit our history of compassion and justice...
...Western Europe. Gangs of racist thugs in Britain engage in "Paki bashing." France has officially declared a target of "zero immigration." Germany insists it is "not a country of immigration," and neo-Nazis have taken the dictum literally enough to set fire to hostels for foreign workers and asylum seekers...