El Paso residents protest asylum policies

About a dozen El Paso residents protested the number of asylum seekers who have arrived in El Paso in the previous months.

“Every country has borders,” said Dennis Saienni. “If you didn’t have borders, you wouldn’t be a country. There has to be a line somewhere.”

The protesters held signs that read “breaking into my home does not give you the right to stay” and “what part of illegal don’t you understand?”

From 2007 to 2016, the number of asylum seekers in the United States grew more more than 77 percent, from 48,200 to almost 85,000, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The number of people seeking asylum from South America grew tenfold, from 54 in 2007 to 529 in 2016. According to that DHS data, asylum seekers from North America fell over that decade, from 2,922 in 2007 to 811 in 2016.

“The truth of the matter is that they’re coming in illegally, surrendering to Border Patrol agents and then released into our country with the promise that they will come back to court,” said Anthony Aguero, one of the protesters.

The group was met with El Paso residents giving them boos and thumbs down.

“It’s their right to be out here,” said Mariana Rodriguez, who confronted the group directly. “But what they’re doing, the beliefs that they have, I do not agree with.”

Note: 2016 was the last year the department’s website had the data available.