 One of the pillars of American immigration law is asylum status, the country's willingness to take in people who could face persecution in their home country. It's a policy reflective of America's deepest values. And it's also a big part of the problem here. Many of the migrants showing up at the border without permission claim asylum status as their ticket into the U.S., more than 800,000 of them in the 2023 fiscal year alone.