The reason refugee applicants are recently crossing illegally is because the Administration has actively prevented lawful refugee application at ports of entry, going so far as to close ports of entry to prevent it.
And they aren't avoiding the application process, they are actively seeking it out and being prevented from pursuing it and punished for doing so.
However, if you have a million+ dollars you can waltz straight in no questions asked. "Here's a passport, why not buy a house whilst you're here? We don't ask questions about your criminal or corrupt past in your country of origin."
Who's in genuine need there?
Not recent at all. The United States has received waves of refugees for centuries. French from Haiti. Basques re-settled in Idaho. Hmong that were re-settled in Wisconsin. Somalis resettled in Minneapolis. There are dozens and dozens of other examples.
What sets a lot of those refugee groups apart is that they were fleeing war and persecution. They weren't economic refugees.
The illegal crossings by refugee applicants are recent.
> The United States has received waves of refugees for centuries.
Yes, but under the modern legal asylum regime, there has been no reason for those seeking refugee status to make border crossings other than at regular ports of entry, because there is a legal process for them to apply for asylum at such ports and it's in their interest to follow it. Until, that is, the government actively prevented them from doing so, which is a recent phenomenon.
> What sets a lot of those refugee groups apart is that they were fleeing war and persecution
The recent waves are also fleeing war and persecution (as in many of the previous waves, war that the US is directly involved in, this time, I signficant part, the Central American drug wars, which—unlike the largely metaphorical war on drugs in the US—are actual wars.)
and there's a valid reason for doing so. sorry, but there is no given right to enter any country at any time because you so choose. there is demonstrated problem at the southern border and ports of entry so the government is taking steps to manage the situation.
There is, in fact, a legal right to apply for asylum at US ports of entry.
> there is demonstrated problem at the southern border
As consequence, not cause, of this Administration’s policy.
> the government is taking steps to manage the situation.
No, it is actively, and deliberately creating the problem, not managing it, except in the sense of stage managing.