Idea of the Day: Encourage Immigrants to Apply at Embassies

  Sometimes, an idea is so great, I do not understand why we don't do it. My cousin Gayle Jackson and a person I ran into named Patrick Davis offered such a solution today.
   Same solution. I had never heard it before, and today I heard it twice.
   Process immigration applicants at the embassies in the home countries. Right now, the good portion of immigrants travel across Mexico -- subjecting themselves to the cartels -- and either sneak across the border of present themselves for asylum once they reach the border. Here's the way Gayle explained it:
  "Legal Immigration needs to be expanded, but it needs to start in the country of origin. We have embassies for this. If we need to expand our embassy personnel to deal with the increased work load so be it. Then when they get their proper documentation they get on a plane and fly to the United States instead of providing business for the drug cartels to transport them across the desert."
   So, how do we get the immigrants to apply at the embassies? One, let asylum applications be processed at the embassies. International law might dictate that the application be made either upon crossing the border or sometime later after being in the U.S., but, there doesn't seem to be reason to not process asylum requests right at the embassies.
   Two, make it so those who apply at the embassies are more likely to be approved than those who show up at the border. And, make it so those who apply at the embassies are approved quicker and easier. What if you could apply at the embassy, and be approved within a week and be on a plane to the U.S.? Which are you going to choose -- traveling all the way across Mexico only to face a lengthy process upon arrival, or going to the embassy and being quickly approved without having to journey across Mexico?