KJP Tells Russians Fleeing Conscription to Seek Asylum in U.S.

An interesting bit of advice emerged from Tuesday’s White House press briefing. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre invited Russians fleeing their country in order to escape military service to seek asylum in the United States. “They should do that,” she said.

What could possibly go wrong? The southern border of the United States is overrun by migrants seeking asylum, though most will not legally qualify. Our immigration courts and judges are overwhelmed, with years-long backlogs on asylum claims. Sure, by all means, encourage more people to come and seek asylum, adding to the chaos within the system. Good heavens. Does she ever think before she speaks?

While there has been a run to the border, most Russians want to stay in Europe. They are escaping on foot and in cars to neighboring countries. Flights out of Russia and into countries that will accept them are all sold out. How does KJP think the Russians fleeing military service will get to the United States?

Since Putin’s announcement of a mobilization to generate new troops to fight in Ukraine, nearly 100,000 Russians have crossed the border into Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is a former Soviet republic. It shares a large southern border with Russia. Fortunately for the Russians coming to Kazakhstan, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said his government will not send them back. “We must take care of them and ensure their safety,” Tokayev said Tuesday. “It is a political and a humanitarian issue.”

KJP was asked about the Russians fleeing rather than face fighting in a war in Ukraine they don’t support, as the majority of Russians do not.

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at her regular briefing that the response inside Russia to the so-called “partial mobilization” ordered last week by the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, shows “this war that was started by the Kremlin is unpopular.”

“Regardless of their nationality, [people] may apply for asylum in the United States and have their claims adjudicated on a case by case basis,” Jean-Pierre added. “We welcome any folks who are seeking asylum and they should do that.

“What we’re seeing in Russia are the people of Russia who are saying they do not want this war, they do not support Putin’s war,” she went on.

Once upon a time, that would have been a reasonable answer. Now, however, we are living in Biden’s America. The Biden border crisis threatens the sovereignty of the United States and we have our own humanitarian crisis on the southern border. Team Biden put out the call that the world is welcome to come to America whether or not they use legal means to do so. Biden had no infrastructure in place along the border to handle the hundreds of thousands of migrants who took him up on the invitation. In the almost two years that Biden has been in office, Border Patrol reports almost four million encounters will illegal migrants. That’s not sustainable. Encouraging even more people to come now is crazy.

Russians have arrived in Armenia, Georgia, Mongolia and Nordic nations in recent days since Putin announced his intention to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops to fight in Ukraine. Putin may not have realized that Russians would head for the border rather than fight in a war that they do not understand. Russians are arriving in countries where they don’t need a visa to enter or where they can stay temporarily without documentation. Neighboring countries are seeing an increase of people seeking refuge.

The head of Georgia’s interior ministry told journalists Tuesday that the number of people entering the country from Russia has almost doubled in recent days, jumping from 5,000-6,000 to 10,000 people a day. At one of eight border crossings into Mongolia, some 3,000 Russians had crossed between Sept. 21 and Sept. 25, local border authorities said. Around 1,000 people usually cross this border each day, according to local media outlets.

Some Nordic countries have also seen an uptick in entries by Russians in recent days. On Sunday, 8,314 Russians entered Finland via the land border, according to data posted on the Finnish Border Guards website on Monday. Some 5,068 Russians left the country the same day. A rising number of Russian men are also crossing into Norway through the town of Storskog, one of the northernmost border posts on Earth. Some 243 Russians transited there on Sunday, a slight increase from previous weekends, local border officials said.

The same thing happened when Putin began his invasion into Ukraine in February. Ukrainians who were not staying to fight headed to the border to escape the war. Poland was the top destination at that time and took in thousands of Ukrainians seeking refuge. Other European countries took in Ukrainians, too. Ukrainians want to stay in Europe because when the war ends, they have hopes of returning to their country.

Russians are using Kazakhstan as a temporary destination. They are going on to other countries.

Many of the Russians who crossed into neighboring countries departed for other destinations, data show. In Kazakhstan, for example, Aslan Atalykov, acting chair of the Migration Service Committee at Kazakhstan’s interior affairs ministry told reporters on Monday that some 40,000 Russians had left Kazakhstan in recent days, heading south to neighboring Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. And almost 6,000 Russians had left by air. Of the 896 foreign citizens who applied for a residency in Kazakhstan between Sept. 1 and Sept. 24, around 10% were Russians, Mr. Atalykov said.

Putin is failing in his attempt to annex Ukrainian territory, assuming the Ukrainians would not fight back. He was emboldened by the lack of response from Obama and Biden when he annexed Crimea and invaded Georgia. With little to no response from the Team Obama, Putin simply waited until Biden came back into office and launched his attack on Ukraine for more territory. This time is different. Ukrainians are strong and determined to fight for their country. Russians want no part of this war and are protesting in the streets, though it is illegal to do so in Russia and they are risking their lives. Russians are slowly rising up against Putin. He badly miscalculated support for his invasion into Ukraine and now faces the consequences.

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