A.G. Gancarski
Gov. Ron DeSantis is questioning the legitimacy of political asylum claims following a crash that killed three people on the Florida Turnpike last week.
Harjinder Singh, who authorities say crossed the Mexican border into the U.S., made an illegal U-turn on the Florida Turnpike before the deadly crash, per the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP). While in the U.S., he reportedly obtained his commercial driver’s license from California.
DeSantis, one of the leading critics of open borders in this era, is denouncing Singh for both the tragedy and for entering the country while claiming asylum.
“Congress can address the abuse, you know, that we’re seeing in this asylum process. Because I’d say 95% of the people that are claiming it just factually do not even come close to meeting what should be,” DeSantis said Tuesday in St. Cloud.
“They say the magic words, they get an initial determination, they get a court date. … And that was something that happened with this guy that came in illegally from India. So to have three people killed so senselessly, so absolutely enraging to see this happening, knowing that … all this could have been prevented.”
The American Immigration Council notes that nearly 1.5 million asylum claims were pending as of the end of last year. Singh was processed for deportation under the first Donald Trump administration, but claimed to fear returning to India. His work authorization was approved in the first months of the Joe Biden administration.
His asylum claim was still pending at the time of last week’s incident. For DeSantis, Singh is just one of many people “abusing the process and the statutes that we have in the United States of America, and they’re trained to do this.”
“You have massive numbers of people that have claimed that. Millions and millions have claimed it, you know, just leaving a country in Central America. They’re not truly seeking it. They’re just economic migrants,” DeSantis added.
“You have this incentive. So he was basically given some type of preliminary termination to say, okay, you’ll have a hearing in two or three years, and then it gets pushed, and then it gets pushed and all this stuff. And it’s basically a one-way ratchet.”
The Governor wants Congress to “address the abuses” in the process.
