The majority of illegal immigrants entering the US are no longer Mexican immigrants seeking economic opportunity, and instead have shifted to asylum seekers from around the world.
A new report found that half of the illegal immigrants captured in 2015 were women and children from Central America, classified as OTMs – “Other Than Mexicans” – a legitimate classification used by the government.
One of the primary reasons for an increase in OTMs, experts suggest, is an increase in individuals fleeing dangerous situations, crime, and hunger in their home countries to seek asylum in the US. The surge has placed a strain on the US immigration system by backlogging the number of cases that need to be address in court and by shaking the number of services the US was not prepared to offer; in many cases, illegal immigrants are turning themselves in and requesting asylum in the US.
Immigration Courts must decipher in each case if an illegal immigrant has a strong enough case to dodge deportation. The US government has proved that it is not well prepared for the surge and variance of illegal immigrants, as it has resorted to building ‘makeshift detentions’ and hearing cases via web, experts say. For each person seeking asylum, the case is slow, arduous, consuming and, in many cases, the outcomes unfavorable.
Read full story at: Quartz