Ex-ICE chief: 'Seeking a better life does not qualify for asylum'

See the interview with Homan beginning at 8:40:

The vast majority of Central Americans in the caravans seeking entry into the United States do not qualify for asylum, contends a former acting ICE director.

"Seeking a better life does not qualify for asylum, so they are committing fraud," said Thomas Homan in an interview Tuesday with Mark Steyn on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," the Daily Caller reported.

"We are the most welcoming country in this world. We welcome more refugees in the United States than every other country in the world combined," Homan said. "So, enough. You can't want to be part of the greatest country on Earth and not respect our laws."

Homan noted President Trump has deployed additional Customs and Border Protection officers at the border and has commissioned the building of extra facilities to detain people.

"What this president needs to do, which hasn't happened in the past, if they get to the United States and enter, they need to be detained until they see a judge because the Central American population is right around 89 to 91 percent would lose their case because they don’t qualify for asylum," Homan said.

The former ICE director said the Central Americans seeking asylum need to be in custody "when they lose their case so they can be removed, which sends a strong message to the rest of the world that we are a nation of laws."

"We will give you due process but you have to live by the judge's decision, also," he said.

Last month, Trump called the migrant caravan a national emergency, saying he had alerted the U.S. Border Patrol and the military.

ACLU sues 'for right to enter illegally'

Steyn asked Homan to comment on the temporary restraining order issued Monday by a federal judge in San Francisco against Trump's proclamation denying asylum for all foreign nationals who enter the country illegally.

The ACLU challenged the proclamation in court, arguing it violates the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

Homan said that, in essence, the ACLU "just sued the Trump administration for the right for people to enter this country illegally and be able to claim asylum."

"This is not so much about the rule of law but an attack on the Trump Administration," Homan said. "But when he gives an asylum proclamation, he bases it on the same general principle as the travel ban."

Homan, noting the administration's travel ban was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, said "we will win this."

"The problem is, until he gets to the Supreme Court, thousands and thousands and thousands of more caravans will come because of this ruling," he said.

Mexican adviser admits most claims fraudulent

On the show Tuesday, Steyn interviewed a former adviser to former Mexican President Vicente Fox, Juan Hernandez, who admitted that the motivation of most of the migrants in the caravan is economic.

Unwittingly, Hernandez was acknowledging, then, that most of the claims for asylum are invalid.

An asylum applicant, according to U.S. law, must prove that he or she would be persecuted on account of one of five protected grounds: race, religion, nationality, political opinion or a particular social group.

Hernandez argued the United States "needs about 350,000 new people every year" as workers and the "dream" of the migrants "is to come to the United States."

Hernandez, who currently advises a governor of a Mexican state, also acknowledged that "75 to 80 percent" of the members of the caravan are young men.

See the interview with Hernandez beginning at 2:25: