Washington, D.C., was the stage this Thursday, November 6th, for an international conference on immigration and asylum that brought together former heads of the U.S. Border Patrol, European analysts, and diplomatic representatives. The event, hosted by the International Network for Immigration Research (INIR), underscored a central idea: the current asylum system is in crisis, and Western governments must regain control over their borders and migration policies.
The opening session was led by Mark Morgan, former Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), who warned that the world is facing “a global migration crisis” driven by misguided policies and an ideology that “has mistaken compassion for weakness.” Morgan argued that “border security is synonymous with national security” and criticized U.S. policies that, in his view, have encouraged illegal immigration. “No country can sustain this influx without undermining its sovereignty,” he stated.
Senator Eric Schmitt, a Republican from Missouri, echoed that message, declaring that the unifying slogan across Western democracies must be “to take back control.” In his remarks, Schmitt compared the current populist wave to Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump in 2016, emphasizing that “no nation can be sovereign if it cannot decide who enters and who stays.” He praised the previous Trump administration’s measures—such as the construction of the border wall and the Remain in Mexico program—and called for a common response to mass migration and the erosion of cultural cohesion.
The asylum debate was defined by a clash of perspectives between those who advocate leaving the 1951 Refugee Convention—as proposed by Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies—and those who believe reform is possible within its framework. Yonatan Jakubowitz, of the Israeli Immigration Policy Center, argued that it is feasible “to return to the original wording” of the Convention and enforce the law strictly without abandoning humanitarian principles.
Meanwhile, Rodrigo Ballester, of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium in Budapest, presented a report calling for the “renationalization of European asylum policies” to restore power to member states over Brussels. “Europe must regain control. The current system is a failure that has only fueled human trafficking and insecurity,” he said.
The second panel, focused on judicial obstacles to migration control, highlighted a shared concern: the ability of courts to block government actions. Matt O’Brien, of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), denounced the “politicization of law” in the United States, while Hungarian researcher Viktor Marsai warned of the growing “ideologization” of European courts in asylum matters. Simon Hankinson, of the Heritage Foundation, summed up the British dilemma with a stark warning: “The West is committing suicide by law.”
Experts agreed that the current asylum system—originally designed after World War II to protect political refugees—no longer fits the realities of the 21st century, dominated by economic migration and the influence of criminal networks. In contrast to institutional paralysis, many participants called for renewed international cooperation that respects state sovereignty and puts an end to the “fiction of a universal right to migrate.”