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Jackson Sun
June 27, 2018

Permanent family separation, an American tragedy
By Joe Guzzard


The U.S. welcomes valid asylum claims. “Valid” is key. According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, nearly 80 percent of more than 15,000 of the asylum claims made between 2012 and 2017 from El Salvador were denied. Pursuit of a better life or other economically motivated reasons are not valid asylum claims. A 2017 Pew Research report found that El Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Honduran migrants cite economic opportunity as among their main reasons for traveling north. In midst of the frenzy about illegal immigrants separated from their children, the nation would do well to remember that the Inman family, the Kate Steinle family and thousands of other victim families endure the forever-lasting pain of separation that is the result of illegal immigrants’ criminal actions.


Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University
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