The most powerful people-magnet on Earth was at the root of last week’s epic mass migration event that swamped Ceuta, Spain’s city enclave on the Moroccan coast: the perceived opportunity among poor laborers to lodge political-persecution asylum claims they know would allow their probable release into rich destination countries, pretty much forever.

What just happened in Spain must serve as a seminal warning to the Trump administration that its admirable work to quiet the U.S. southern border—the same formula Ceuta used to deny migrants the globally coveted asylum claim process—is very far from complete.

Spain’s Supreme Court triggered the human torrent when it struck down a policy uncannily like Trump’s border policy. It promptly expels arriving migrants and denies all a chance to start the lengthy asylum claim process that leads to interior releases. The Spanish court required that Spain adjudicate asylum claims before expulsion.

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