Humanitarian crisis on the boarder

[Jaga]

I wonder whether Karl can comment on this crisis also. There are thousands of people, many of them are just children crossing the boarder to the US illegally and seeking an asylum. There are so many that there are not enough places to even keep them safely. Republicans are making this into a political point against Biden. Neither side is discussing what really causes this crisis. AS far as I know majority of these people are from Central America - Honduras, but recently there were people from Haiti.

Here is more about it from Politico:

www.politico.com/news/2021/03/20/us-mexico-border-immigration-crisis-477277
‘The crisis is in Washington’: Overwhelmed border officials urge D.C. to act

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Here, at the southernmost tip of Texas, tucked along the Gulf Coast and bumping along the Rio Grande, this border town of about 185,000 residents is accustomed to welcoming three groups of people: Mexican shoppers, spring breakers — and migrants.

Mexicans who once crossed regularly to spend money at stores and restaurants are still barred from coming, due to the still-raging coronavirus pandemic. But college students are flying into the airport here, ready to party on the beaches of neighboring South Padre Island. And now, as the immigration debate intensifies on Capitol Hill, this city is seeing an influx of migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. Many are landing here after days and weeks of travel on buses and by foot — showing up at the border crossing Brownsville shares with Matamoros, Mexico, hoping to connect with their families elsewhere in the United States.

Local officials and community leaders along the border say their main message to Washington is: Less politics, more actual change. So far this time, they say, they’ve managed to hold chaos at bay. But they worry the situation is getting out of control as the number of migrants swells and conditions worsen accordingly at U.S. Border Patrol facilities. They insist it’s way past time for leaders in Washington to come up with long-term solutions that will help create better conditions in the migrants’ home countries and allow those that still want to come to the U.S. to enter via a smooth and fair process.

“There’s no question Donald Trump’s strategy was inhumane, brutal and un-American,” said Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), who represents a border district. “But what we’re doing now is also a failure.”

Officials and community leaders along the border also say there’s one key detail missing in the debate: These are human beings that politicians are arguing about.

On an early Friday morning, Guatemalan asylum-seeker Marlen Reyes sat at the downtown bus station with her 8-year-old daughter, Meylin, and 5-year-old son, Freddy, parked next to a small flowered backpack and two plastic bags filled with water, juice and snacks. Just two blocks away looms a bridge linking the U.S. to Mexico, where Americans can pay a dollar in coins to cross over to Mexico by foot. The surrounding area is marked by its border status with duty free stores, a flea market and outlets selling everything from sunglasses to party supplies in the streets leading up to the bridge.

[Jaga]

and here is more about reframing this crisis into what really causes it:

crooksandliars.com/2021/03/reframing-debate-humanitarian-crisis-our

[karl]

Jaga

First to thank you for your kind invitation for a reply comment, although my self do hesitate for my reply may not be a welcomed one, but for every question of why, is the answer of,,why not..

There is as with most situations, not one single situation or answer, for many factures come in to play as a cause and effect, for this situation is little different.. One of many factures of this situation is both economic and political both off shores of the USA and that of poor economics coupled with politics of those selected South American states. To then add to petrol upon the fire, much of this is self made by a combination of American foreign policy of past US interference in affairs of those effected South American states. With this is some additional factors that all contribute to this situation as brought to the table of discussion.

With the noticable high numbers of children having crossed the border is a foot hold for later parents to arrive for their children as a sensative leverage for entry. Then there is the silence of large corporations that desire to increase profits with low wages taken by illegals with fear of being turned in. For a great many of large farms are not private by corporate owned. With this, is then to address such companies in the construction business, for then to hire these illegals at much lower wages then union workers, again for the golden ring of higher profits. With this must include of the competative situation these various construction companies must compete against other simular companies for the contracts. With the use of lower labour cost, this then becomes very viable presenting such low bid against other simular companies unable to compete against such a low bid for the same quality of work.

16:26 GMT 21.03.2021

by Ekaterina Blinova

sputniknews.com/us/202103211082409981-border-crisis-who-wants-to-flood-the-us-with-migrants-and-why/

The US is on course to encounter the highest number of people trying to cross its southwest border in the last 20 years, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged on 16 March, while the White House is still in denial about the border crisis.

Earlier this week, DHS head Alejandro Mayorkas embarked on a trip to El Paso, Texas together with a bipartisan group of American lawmakers. The press was not allowed to cover the delegation's visit, however, having returned from the tour Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said that "it was stunning to see how many people, including unaccompanied children, unlawfully crossed the border." Citing border patrol agents, he said that a processing facility in Paso del Norte is dealing with a 150-200 percent increase in migrants.

Democratic Party's 'Electoral Bonanza'

In February 2021, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) caught 100,441 people trying to cross the southwest border, representing a 28 percent increase on January 2021.

Republicans are blaming the influx on Joe Biden's loosened border policies and his promise to legalise about 11.3 million unauthorised migrants in the country. The latter measure has long been seen by the GOP as the Dems' attempt to beef up their electoral base. In 2013, Pew Research revealed that of the Latino immigrants who are eligible to vote, "many more identify as Democrats than as Republicans – 54 percent versus 11 percent," adding that Hispanics constitute three quarters of illegal immigrants in the US. Immigration reform could become an "electoral bonanza" for the Dems, Politico suggested in April 2013.

For Nancy Pelosi, the crisis on our southern border is not an unintended consequence, it is THE intended consequence.

Democrats want illegal immigrants voting in our elections. pic.twitter.com/cQjqup7YPj

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@repmattgaetz) March 20, 2021
​
"Many analyses have consistently shown that immigration has a negative impact on Republican votes as a whole, even though increases in immigration have often proven to be an important policy issue that increases GOP turnout," says American independent journalist Max Parry. "So there is no doubt that the Democrats know changing demographics from immigration are more likely to benefit them than the GOP."
However, those who support a steady influx of migrants do not necessarily agree on the question of whether they should be legalised as citizens, according to the journalist.

Farmers' Lobby: Seasonal Labour

"For example, many powerful US business lobbies such as the agricultural industry and farm owners rely on exploiting cheap and illegal non-citizens for seasonal labour," he highlights. "The farmers lobby and agricultural groups have often blocked immigration bills that would require electronic verification systems that would prevent employers and businesses from being able to hire and exploit illegal immigrants who cannot unionise."
According to CBS News, out of 11.3 million of illegals, eight million have jobs. Overall, undocumented immigrants make up to 5 percent of the US workforce: 53 percent of them are hired farmers; 15 percent are involved in construction; 9 percent work in production with the same percentage is employed in services; and 6 percent labour in transportation. The demand for unauthorised workers is growing steadily in many sectors, the news agency said.

The House this week will bring to the floor 2 bills tweaking citizenship processes:
- 1 creates pathways for Dreamers, undocumented people brought to US as children
- 1 creates temporary status and green card processes for ag. workers t.co/Ze9ctLfku8 per @rebeccamorin_

— Sean Rossman (@seanrossman) March 14, 2021
​
Explaining why American dairy farmers tend to hire illegal immigrants, the 2017 Cornell Farmworker Programme's research cited the lack of a visa programme for year-round workers on dairy farms and problems to find and keep reliable US citizens to do the jobs, because farm work is seen as physically demanding, dirty, dangerous, and socially denigrated. Besides filling jobs unwanted by citizens, the cheap labour of unauthorised workers keeps prices low.

Big Business: Driving Wages Down

For its part, big business traditionally uses mass immigration to drive wages down and to combat organised labour, which protects workers from unfair competition, notes Parry, adding that "this has become taboo to say, especially on the left."

"There is no denying that large corporations both encourage and use illegal immigration to deliberately import a supply of low-wage workers they can exploit while undermining the power of organised labour to collectively bargain with employers. By keeping borders open and immigration unrestricted, the workforce can be replaced with cheap labour," he says.

In April 2020, the New York Times bemoaned the fact that a surge in deportations under Donald Trump aggravated labour market shortages adding that 50-75 percent of all "crop hands" are undocumented migrants.

However, CBS and NYT somehow failed to notice that undocumented workers are more vulnerable to exploitation and human rights abuse than US citizens. Illegal immigrants are "unlikely to raise grievances with their employers or the authorities" because they could lose their only source of income and be locked up or deported, according to the Ethical Trading Initiative, a UK-based independent body.

Furthermore, "large-scale migration flows are too often exploited by 'bad actors' for profit – ranging from criminals who exploit trafficked people to employers who do not meet legal hiring practices," the Washington DC-based Migration Policy Institute (MPI) highlighted in a 2014 report, adding that consumers unknowingly also aid exploitation of illegals.

Honduras and Vicious Cycle of US Interventionism

"It has become almost cliche at this point for advocates of open borders and unrestricted immigration to deny there is any crisis at all on the US southern border. Why? Because to acknowledge there is a humanitarian crisis on the border would force US politicians, mainstream media, and naive advocates of open borders to have a conversation about the consequences of American foreign policy," says Parry.

The journalist notes that the immigration debate is routinely limited by corporate media to questions of who is behind the migrant caravans or immigration laws. However, it is more important to ask how this crisis came about in the first place, he argues.

​How did Honduras become the source of perpetual migration? The answer is apparently the 2009 coup d'etat, which ousted the democratically-elected reformist President Manuel Zelaya, empowered by the Obama-Biden administration and Hillary Clinton's State Department, Parry says.

"Fundamentally, the US foreign policy created the migrant crisis coming from countries like Honduras which has a long history of American interventions, including seven in the last century," the journalist notes. "In the early 1900s, the Central American country was known as a 'banana republic' controlled by the United Fruit Company and the US military was called in to put down several uprisings. It was later an outpost for training the Contras fighting the Sandinista government in Nicaragua during the Reagan administration. The crisis on the US-Mexico border is a direct result of our military interventions and that is a conversation that neither political party in Washington wants to have."

Karl

[karl]

The Border is closed:

www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mayorkas-says-the-border-is-closed-defends-biden-s-immigration-strategy/ar-BB1eOzKb?ocid=msedgdhp


Karl

[kaima]

For decades now, the US Congress has refused to take action on composing a realistic immigration law that is enforceable and would help control the decades-old crisis at the Mexican border. Instead they have used it as a political football to make ineffective 'points' in their quest for votes and power. Only the Nation and the People have suffered. It is at this point that I normally insert my own 'point' to mention the Reagan Amnesty, which brings out the hypocricy of the Republican Party but does not really help the discussion progress. So here is an opinion expressed in the NY Times that does add to discussion and not mud slinging:

Opinion
The Perpetual Crisis at the Border — and What We Can Do About It
The U.S. immigration system doesn't reflect its own needs or those of its southern neighbors.


By Jorge Ramos
Mr. Ramos is a contributing opinion writer and an anchor for the Univision network. He has covered immigration issues for three decades.

April 2, 2021



U.S. Border Patrol agents processing a group of people last month that they had caught crossing the border from Mexico in Penitas, Texas.
U.S. Border Patrol agents processing a group of people last month that they had caught crossing the border from Mexico in Penitas, Texas.Credit...Joe Raedle/Getty Images
MIAMI — The U.S.-Mexico border is a “bleeding scar.” That is how Mexican author Carlos Fuentes described it in 1997. According to the Pew Research Center, 1.2 million immigrants, authorized and unauthorized, entered the United States that year. Back then, just like now, there was talk of an overwhelming crisis at the border.

In fact, the border has always been in crisis. The broad contours of the modern border were first established in 1848, with the end of the Mexican-American War. When I was in elementary school in Mexico City, I learned that the signing that year of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo put an end to the conflict and the American invasion, and that Mexico was forced to cede 55 percent of its territory to the United States with a compensation of $15 million. Back then, the reality is that a lot of people didn’t cross the border. The border crossed them.

Ever since then, the border has been a region defined by both conflict and extraordinary brotherhood. And for as long as I can remember there have been debates over the people who cross the border from the south and how many should be allowed to do so each year.

Beginning with Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, I’ve had the chance as a journalist to cover the immigration policies of every U.S. president. As we face today’s border crisis, the history of these policies must be reviewed in order to find a long-term solution — one that must involve accepting many more authorized immigrants. It’s clear that America’s immigration system is broken and outdated; it doesn’t reflect the new needs of the United States or its southern neighbors.



In 1986, Mr. Reagan, a Republican, granted “amnesty” to almost three million undocumented immigrants. Unfortunately, the president’s reform bill wasn’t a comprehensive solution and it failed to stem the flow of unauthorized immigrants.

By the time I interviewed President George W. Bush in Mexico in February 2001, soon after he had taken office, the number of undocumented immigrants had dramatically increased to about 7.8 million. Mr. Bush flirted with the idea of a “temporary worker program,” but the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks later that year put a halt to any push for immigration reform.

As the years passed, the number of undocumented immigrants kept growing — rising to 12.2 million in 2007. In 2009, a newly elected President Barack Obama missed a crucial opportunity to introduce an immigration reform bill at a time when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. Then came Donald Trump, one of the most racist and anti-immigrant presidents in American history.

Mr. Trump’s inhuman and repressive policies — and the emergency health measures put in place in 2020 to control the pandemic — reduced annual net immigration to its lowest levels since the 1980s.

But now, with a new president and new rules, the United States could return to the days when hundreds of thousands of immigrants entered the country illegally every year. In February alone, U.S. officials apprehended more than 100,400 migrants along the border. This is, perhaps, the new normal.


“The border is not open,” the U.S. secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, told me in an interview. “What we have discontinued,” Mr. Mayorkas promised, “is the cruelty of the previous administration.”

Well, apparently, in Central America, people only heard the bit about “cruelty” being over, which is why so many migrants are heading north toward the border. Tens of thousands of asylum seekers, mostly from Central America, have waited for over a year in Mexican border towns and they will not waste this opportunity.

It should come as no surprise that this is happening along a border that divides one of the richest and most powerful countries in the world from one of its most economically unequal regions. Latin America’s poor and vulnerable — struggling amid a pandemic, the devastation of climate change and the violence of their homelands — are moving north to a safer, more prosperous place. It’s that simple. And this will keep happening for a long time.

Due to the pandemic, Latin America has experienced its “worst social, economic and productive crisis” in 120 years, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. Two hurricanes — Eta and Iota — devastated Central America late last year. And gangs, corruption, violence, along with the repercussions of the environmental crisis and a shortage of Covid-19 vaccines, have forced many people to leave the region.

Mexico, in particular, has suffered greatly during the pandemic: More than 320,000 people have died from Covid-19, according to a recent government report, and Mexico’s economy declined 8.5 percent last year. To make matters worse, there is the terrible and intractable problem of drug-cartel violence. According to the head of the U.S. Northern Command, 30 percent to 35 percent of the country is under the control of “transnational criminal organizations.” This means that any migrants traveling north through Mexico are in immediate danger.

We must accept this unfortunate reality and create a system that can legally, efficiently and safely absorb more of these immigrants and refugees. They will keep coming; there is no other solution. All the other options — walls, detention facilities, family separation policies, forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico, expedited repatriations and mass deportations — have failed. The $4 billion investment in Central America that President Biden has promised is a good starting point for tackling the origins of migration in the region: poverty and a lack of opportunity. That project, however, will take years to yield results.

In the meantime, the United States should start accepting between one and a half and two million authorized immigrants every year.


Entry into the United States must be legalized and optimized, seeing that now it is a dangerous system that encourages human trafficking controlled by drug cartels and other organized crime networks. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico has said that, according to his calculations, “The U.S. economy is going to need between 600,000 and 800,000 workers per year,” and that it would be good to reach an immigration agreement with the United States so that those essential people can enter the country legally instead of risking their lives trying to cross the border. He’s right.

The United States is a nation of immigrants, and, as Andrés Oppenheimer of The Miami Herald recently argued, it’s going to need a lot more migrants to support the nation’s beleaguered economy, replace its growing population of retired workers and make up for the country’s low birthrate. Our immigration system desperately needs to be updated to face these challenges.

Today, all along the U.S.-Mexico border, the aspirations of new immigrants are colliding with a country reluctant to revamp its way of welcoming and absorbing newcomers. The struggle is real, but we know how it has to end, with more legal immigration. As they say in Mexico, “No hay de otra” — There is no other way.

Jorge Ramos (@jorgeramosnews) is an anchor for the Univision network, a contributing opinion writer and the author of, most recently, “Stranger: The Challenge of a Latino Immigrant in the Trump Era.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: [e-mail].

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@nytopinion) and Instagram.

[Jaga]

Kai,

Reagan amnesty was a good dead, I am glad you brought it up. Right now there are voices on both sides that a human action is needed for these immigrants. I even saw in Fox News that people condemned Kristi Noem, South Dakota crazy lady, stating that she would not accept any immigrants until they are American citizens.

Biden was criticized today for trying to limit refugees quotas to the US

[kaima]

Apr 16, 2021 19:16:50 GMT -7 Jaga said:

Kai,

Reagan amnesty was a good dead, I am glad you brought it up. Right now there are voices on both sides that a human action is needed for these immigrants. I even saw in Fox News that people condemned Kristi Noem, South Dakota crazy lady, stating that she would not accept any immigrants until they are American citizens.

Biden was criticized today for trying to limit refugees quotas to the US

This may largely repeat my comments, but Congress SHOULD be the way our immigration policy is determined. What they determine today would not be what we need in20 years, nor reflect what we needed 20, 50, or 100 years ago. I feel they have abrogated their responsibility by failing to debate - and ask the difficult questions - what do WE wish from immigration? I am perfectly willing to be selfish in this respect, and start from the point of - What is good for us, the USA?

Then we can address What do we want to extend to the world for immigration quotas? Does this flood of South American immigrants - and refugees - meet the goals we set for quality of immigrants? If not, how do we shut off the flow from the south? Do we add a certain amount for humanitarian needs and for those who face persecution and death if they are sent home? Do we have the nerve to send them home anyhow if they do not fulfill OUR needs, once we reach a quota of Charity allowances for danger, death and torture victims (which would include rape, of course)?

Just as I don't believe the USA can be the world's policeman, minister, or missionary, I do believe we have limited resources and can only allow and afford a certain amount of charity immigrants before we will materially harm ourselves.

The moral imperative is to discuss and establish those quotas for today. Then in ten years reconsider where we are and where we wish to go.

All in our own self-interest!

Kai

[karl]

That what Kai has so aptly described is for the most part, the experience of a few short years past with the Islamic immigrant invasion in to Europe. What do you do is a common question, this in the stead of questions, to answer with solutions.

As a common name for Americans in the mind of both Mexico and other Central and South American States is: Americans are the Golden People for they live in such a rich country, so why not us..

Talk is cheap, but actions cost in so much as solutions. It is very emotional and common to have so many children arrive with out parents or adults, but this is a common tactic to gain a foot hold on to American soil, this then is to provide for later adults to arrive to once again bring togather the family. Smugglers love that,, for next is to use these people as cover for importing illegal drugs across the border using such children. For very quite often are the border cameras on both sides to pick up and record such smugglers lifting young children over the high border fence and simply dropping them down on the USA side with no regard to possible injury to the dropped child.

The question that is most important is: The security and safety of the American People on the American side as a decision based upon emotional values is the priority...

Denmark solved the above question with the simple word,,NO More. Sweden is beginning to understand that word as well with Islamic Immigrants.

Karl