The Stay in Mexico policy simply kicks the can to someone else who is also woefully unprepared to handle the situation. It doesn't really help so much as shift some of the blame to someone else. No one is really better off but at least Trump can kind of say "Look, its not totally my fault!" even though the Stay in Mexico policy is in itself his fault so that's a bit of a strange defense on that one...

Like there is a reason why the United States doesn't consider Mexico a Safe Third Country (despite Trump's willingness to change this). The Stay in Mexico policy is just a half assed version of something pretty much every advocate for immigrants say is not a good thing.

Yeah the stay in Mexico policy sucks for Mexico but at this time there's literally almost no space to hold people coming in now in our centers. If there were no stay in Mexico policy overcrowding would be much worse. 

I'm not talking about Mexico, I'm talking about immigrants and asylum seekers.

That said, the primary reason that overcrowding is a problem is because of Trump's own policies to hold these individuals in detention.

Were immigrants crossing the border not held in detention centers before Trump?

Can't Americans just be happy with their privilege of never being inconvenienced in any way and never having to give to be able to take? I mean, just imagine going to a console launch and having to actually wait in line out in the weather, and then being asked for money you had to save up before you leave with it. Even worse, being told they're sold out and you'll have to come back and wait again. Treating outsiders like this is sickening. To think the paradise they left to come to America and now having to deal with this. You'd almost think most would pack up and go back home after dealing with this sorry excuse of so called 'freedom'.

There is variation in regards to a number of different factors including who was crossing the border and when we are talking about, but the alternative would be releasing the individuals on bond and ordering them to appear for their day in court, similar to how many lower criminal offenses are handled within the United States. As for what has changed, to name one example, recently, Barr (aka Chief Shill) issued a decision ordering Immigration Judges to not release asylum seekers on bond after they have demonstrated a credible threat, forcing more people to stay detained when they would have previously been released on bond.

Isn't it better for them to stay detained if they are deemed to be a threat? Also iirc there was an issue with people not showing up for their court dates.

You added a little extra provision in there, you sneaky devil.

Obviously if they are deemed to be a threat they should often be denied bond. Typically threat assessment and flight risk are the main things factored in when deciding bond. However, this order does not simply apply to those who are deemed a threat, it applies to everyone by default.

As for your recollection, data indicates about 90% of asylum seekers show up for their court dates. Obviously that number is already quite good, however at the core of most of these issues is trust. Immigrant behavior is largely dictated by trust. Immigrants will often come forward, pay taxes, report victimizations to the authorities, etc if they trust that the government will treat them fairly. Trump's policies I would argue have severely degraded trust in immigrants which has the exact opposite effect of the societally desired outcomes. If we want individuals to show up for court hearings, mistreating them, throwing them in prison and depriving them of human rights is a pretty bad way to get that done.

Foolish AOC, saving New York billions in corporate welfare.

Actually, they were originally planned to. After all, the immigration from central and south america dropped of a lot after the 90's and we're still far from those levels in the US.

However, the budgets of customs, border patrols and the like kept getting axed, sometimes in favor of walls, fences and the like. In other words, the detention centers should be large enough, just hadn't been financed enough to equip them anywhere close to properly.