The recent tragic drowning in the Rio Grande of a young father from El Salvador, Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, and his two-year old daughter Angie, sparked recriminations across the political spectrum. Democrats pounced on the Trump administration’s immigration policies, while President Trump blamed House Democrats’ failure to pass legislation to fix the nation’s immigration laws. Apart from the Washington rhetoric, El Salvador’s president blamed something else: his own country’s economic and crime challenges.

While it is unlikely that the conditions El Salvador’s president describes would justify a migrant’s approval for asylum in the U.S., migrants keep coming. To obtain asylum, a migrant must establish a credible fear of persecution or harm on account of the migrant’s race, religion, nationality, membership in a social group or political opinion. Migrants have not been deterred, however, from making the dangerous trek to America because they know that if you can get here, especially with a minor in tow, you will in short order be released into the country and have a couple of years before you see an immigration judge.