Who do we let into the USA? Should we let in people that are seeking asylum because they are from unsafe countries that may have major human rights violations? Of course. But who actually qualifies?
We could carefully check each person's claims. That takes time and we might reject some who rightfully fear going back to their own countries (Type II error). Or, we could be a little lenient to make sure all the right people are let in but some who really are not in danger might get in as well (Type I error).
This is where Type I error and Type
II errors come in.
I used the book The Economics of Public Issues in my micro
classes. Chapter 1 is called "Death by Bureaucrat." It discusses how the
Food and Drug Administration can make either a Type I error or a Type
II error.
Type I error: The FDA approves a drug before enough testing is done and when people take it, there are harmful side effects.
Type II error: The FDA tests a drug longer than necessary to stay
on the safe side. But people might suffer because the drug is not yet
available. 80,000 people died waiting for Septra to be approved.
The FDA would usually rather make a Type II error because the public can
blame the FDA if a Type I error occurs. But in this case, they wanted
to get masks to people quickly. Not enough testing was done.
Something similar is happening with immigration.
See Senators’ Top Target in Border Talks: Tighter Asylum Rules for Migrants by Michelle Hackman and Lindsay Wise of The WSJ. Excerpts:
"Tightening the initial standard immigrants must meet when applying for asylum could form the basis of a bipartisan border agreement in the Senate,"
"Senate Republicans have demanded a crackdown on asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border"
"Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said . . . talks continued through the Thanksgiving break, and Democrats “stand ready to work on common-sense solutions” related to the border."
"Overhauling the immigration system has long been one of the thorniest tasks before Congress"
"For several weeks, a bipartisan group of senators has been trading proposals on changes to the asylum system."
"Republican lawmakers and White House officials have separately homed in on the change to the initial asylum screening standard as a key step to quickly weed out strong asylum claims—and deport those who don’t qualify. The current standard for asylum claims is an immigrant’s “credible fear” of persecution in their home country, which is seen roughly as any chance above 10%. Raising that bar and mandating more evidence from migrants would block more people from the asylum path.
White House officials see it as an option that could whittle down the number of migrants claiming asylum without needing to massively expand immigrant detention"
"Other ideas under consideration, according to people familiar with the talks, include expanding mandatory detention for single adults for the duration of their immigration cases"
"The administration has also asked for $14 billion in funding to process migrants at the border, and it is likely that at least some of that money, to pay for additional Border Patrol agents and immigration judges, would be included."
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