German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is calling for the accelerated deportations of foreign nationals who are denied asylum. The call is a change of tone for Merkel who, in recent years, has called on the European Union to quickly resettle migrants from outside the region. As a result of her open-borders policies, her approval ratings have declined due to increasing economic and security concerns.
Though Merkel refused to back down on her open immigration policy even after Germany suffered four terrorist attacks in July, she now claims that Germany needs to focus on deporting those who have been denied asylum.
"The most important thing in the coming months is repatriation, repatriation and once more, repatriation," Merkel told the German parliament. Last year, she opened Germany's borders and refused to limit the number of refugees Germany would take in.
During a recent cabinet meeting, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that 21,000 people who had their asylum claim denied were repatriated last year and that 35,000 were deported in the first seven months of this year. He also said that their goal is to repatriate at least 100,000 by the end of this year.
In recent years, the Obama Administration has resettled tens of thousands of migrants from Central America who asked for asylum status, but it has been quiet about what it's doing with the border crossers who are denied asylum. While recent illegal border crossers are a priority under the Administration's Priority Enforcement Program (PEP), it came under heavy criticism from immigration expansionist groups after a series of enforcement actions earlier this year aimed at removing illegal aliens who had been denied asylum status.
Read more on this story at Reuters.com.
