Who benefits from jailing asylum seekers indefinitely? The answer may surprise you

Editorial Board
Corpus Christi Caller-Times
View Comments

Asylum seekers could end up jailed the whole time they wait for their cases to be heard, according to a new Trump administration policy issued by Attorney General William P. Barr.

Consider this: Some of those waits are measured in years.


It depends on your perspective. If you are a refugee, even if you have what Barr calls "a credible fear of persecution or torture," you may have to weigh whether risk of torture and death is worse than long-term incarceration. Death Row inmates in this country have been known to seek an expedited execution rather than linger in prison. Maybe you'll decide to stay put like Barr and President Donald Trump hope you'll do.

Three migrant children play on a cellphone in a makeshift camp next to the international bridge in Matamoros, Mexico as they wait with family members to seek asylum in the U.S on Thursday, April 4, 2019.

If you're a native-born proponent of Trump's approach to immigration, you might have a different view. If you were angry when the courts forced Trump to stop separating children from parents at the border, and if applying the sport-fishing term "catch and release" to humans doesn't offend you, this is your kind of policy.

This also could be great news if you own stock in for-profit prison companies. The two largest are publicly traded and have properties all over Texas. If you have a 401(k) and it's invested in mutual funds and you think you don't own prison stock, chances are you're wrong. Institutional investors own more than 90 percent of the stock in the two biggest prison companies. If you're invested in Vanguard or any of the other big names in mutual funds, you're a for-profit jailer. And your market share is about to explode.

If you fancy yourself a humanitarian, this news will alarm you and you've got some work cut out for yourself. In addition to reviewing your investment portfolio, you'll need to contact your two senators and your U.S. House representative. You'll want to let them know how you feel about this policy and who you're considering voting for in 2020. Two of those three seats will be up for election. 


This Sunday is the day Christians celebrate the resurrection of human history's most famous refugee and spokesman for refugees. Barr, who was raised Catholic and attended Catholic school, issued his decision on the Tuesday before Easter. 

If irony and religious symbolism don't matter to you, consider the economic consequences. Easter week is a popular vacation time for our Mexican neighbors, who traditionally spend that time pouring their money into Texas retail stores and hotels. Trump only recently backed off a threat to close the border, which would have been disastrous to both countries' commerce. This new incarceration policy is bound to add to the chilling effect on our southern neighbors' desire to do business with us.

This is a real problem for Texas, which accounts for 1,254 of the 1,954 miles of border between the two countries. 


These immigrants could be earning their keep, which would be good for them and us. They are grateful to fill jobs most Americans don't want and Texas employers desperately need to fill. Contrary to Trump's scare stories about their criminality, they statistically are far less prone than native-born Americans to commit crimes. They are known to push their children to do better than they did. This new incarceration policy is another attempt by Trump to run off a potential next generation of overachievers by pretending that they're all MS-13.


Maybe not. Advocacy groups have vowed to fight it and they've been successful in court thus far. They have a pretty good case that it's not only inhumane and ineffective, but also illegal. This is, after all, a country where people charged with heinous crimes have the opportunity to make bail. And fleeing oppression is neither a crime nor heinous.

A young migrant girl plays with a hula hoop in a makeshift camp at the next to the international bridge in Matamoros, Mexico where migrants wait for weeks to seek asylum in the U.S on Thursday, April 4, 2019.

There's also the feasibility question. Do we really want to take on the expense of incarcerating many tens of thousands of refugees we could be putting to work?

Only if we're in the business of for-profit imprisonment. Happy Easter.










View Comments