Will the Asylum issue ever be addressed?
Until it is, none of this may matter anyway.
Anyone can claim asylum.
Technically, you are not an "illegal" then.
You can do it at a port of entry, but that is not mandatory.
You can do it up to one year, regardless of your immigration status.
As it stands now, someone comes in and may or may not be met by a border patrol agent.
They say "asylum" and now you have to have a hearing to determine the claim (our laws).
The hearing is scheduled, and off they go, into the country, without going to the hearing.
Some things that are wrong with this are pretty obvious:
(1) Someone can be here 10 years, claim they've been here for less than 1, and ask for asylum. Why not? Technically, no one knows there here or when they arrived.
(2) Not making it mandatory that asylum claims can only come through legal ports of entry.
See problem#1.
If it is not done through a legal port of entry, it cannot be determined when you've actually arrived to the U.S. It can only be determined when you've asked for asylum.
These things have to be fixed, or nothing else will make much difference.