STEPHEN MILLER: There are no “asylum seekers” on the Southern Border. “Asylum” is limited to individuals fleeing extremely narrow categories of state persecution (eg high-ranking Soviet defectors during the Cold War) — none of the groups illegally crossing the border fit that criteria.

Thank you to Tom Luongo. 

A little primer on “asylum”:

1. There are no “asylum seekers” on the Southern Border. “Asylum” is limited to individuals fleeing extremely narrow categories of state persecution (eg high-ranking Soviet defectors during the Cold War) — none of the groups illegally crossing the…

— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) February 2, 2026

A little primer on “asylum”: 1. There are no “asylum seekers” on the Southern Border. “Asylum” is limited to individuals fleeing extremely narrow categories of state persecution (eg high-ranking Soviet defectors during the Cold War) — none of the groups illegally crossing the border fit that criteria. No one in Mexico or Ecuador or Honduras etc live in nations where there is any state persecution of any protected class. It’s all fake, all the way down.

2. All non-Mexican illegals have transited through additional countries on the way to America where there are no forms of state persecution, thereby further disproving any hypothetical claim.

3. As yet further proof the claims are fake, aliens turn down the opportunity to avoid this fabricated persecution by being safely resettled in another nation.

4. Illegal aliens receive free and functionally unlimited legal services. When facing deportation, they and their lawyers (as a matter of course) automatically file fake asylum applications. It’s a multibillion dollar fraudulent industry. It’s gross, unethical, and deeply immoral. Everyone involved in this system understands and knows these claims are false. Adjudicating these knowingly false claims is a full-time job for thousands of people.

5. Federal law requires illegal aliens to be detained pending a hearing for their (fake) asylum claim. These are not prisons. They are not being punished. No one is being sentenced. Civil detention and removal is not part of the Article III justice system (in fact, Congress stripped Article III of jurisdiction over civil immigration procedure). The goal of the US government is to send aliens home immediately (they get cash and a free plane ticket) with the fewest days in custody as logistically possible. Any delay is caused by the fake asylum claim.

6. When the fake asylum claim is heard on the “non-detained” docket, the illegal aliens rarely show for their hearings. Those few who do show stay in the country regardless after losing (unless placed into detention). Removal orders are ignored as a matter of course. If and when absconders are eventually found (at great time and expense) they still have to be detained to actually effectuate the removal. At this point in time their lawyers will file a motion to reopen their asylum claim or otherwise appeal the finding and seek release again. Regardless, no removal of any alien anywhere can occur unless in a detained setting. If the alien has children they are, by law, supposed to stay in a family residential center (that costs more per night than a high-end hotel, and includes full medical, dental, scholastic and other services). 

7. Biden officials did not even bother with the pretext of performing intake interviews for the millions and millions and millions they released into the US. The aliens were simply released on sight, no questions asked, with court dates years away, in the hope and expectation that by the time their fake asylum claims were adjudicated and rejected years later, Democrats would be able to scream that these illegals have now lived here for X years and they and their children must be allowed to stay at our permanent expense. No one in the prior Administration responsible for these decisions actually believed the or now this has anything to do with asylum. To them, it is just useful propaganda in service of infinite mass migration.