Just for the record, I think that migrants held at the border for attempting to enter the country illegally should be maintained in humane conditions. Further, I think that should go without saying. I think that most of the blame for the present situation resides with the Congress, chronically unable to rise to the occasion. Appropriating more money enable the Border Patrol and ICE to manage the unprecedented numbers of families with children coming into the country is a start but it’s just a start.
This is all so unfair. If I should decide to pull up stakes, and load my ill wife, ill daughter, two grandchildren, and that homeless guy my daughter took in into the 1988 Clubwagon with no a/c, find my way to YOUR doorstep and prostate ourselves on your lawn, would I have any right to complain through media what lousy hosts the Schulers are if you don’t take us in?
By the time we got that far we really would need help. We’d be hungry and thirsty and the baby’s diaper would be full, and it would be up to YOU to fix that. That day and ever after we would be your charges, with the lens of the media eyeing your every move.
You see, it’s not that we’re bad, we just spent our last nickle getting to your lawn is all.
Yes, it is unfair. The world is unfair.
It is unfair that Mexico and Central America were colonized by the Spanish while the balance of North America was colonized by the British. It is unfair that the countries that Spain and Portugal colonized are violent and corrupt.
It is unfair that if an American puts his child in danger by leaving the child in a hot car, the American is guilty of child abuse while a Salvadoran who gets his child killed by dragging her across a river is a victim. It is unfair that we routinely remove children from the custody of Americans who have broken laws but are prevented by the courts from removing children from the custody of migrants who have broken our laws. It is unfair that our courts have decided that a whole list of things not in the law as written qualify for asylum.
It is unfair that some Americans, probably a minority, think that entering the country illegally is malum prohibitum, a regulatory infraction like speeding, rather than malum in se, a crime.
None of that is fair and none of it changes our obligation of humane treatment.
The biggest fault in my analogy is that YOU never offered me anything.
But by action and inaction the US congress has offered free accommodation, free healthcare, safety, free education and as with anything free you have a stampede of people who throw caution to the wind to get their share before it’s gone.
We have an obligation of humane treatment towards the six million people on the Navaho reservation too.
Just because we can borrow more money to house, feed, treat, educate the world’s poor does not make it endlessly sustainable.
As I’ve said before I think that immigration is Gen Xers’ and Millennials’ version of the Peace Corps. With open borders they can help poor people from other countries without having to go somewhere without good wireless reception.
“The biggest fault in my analogy is that YOU never offered me anything.”
We have a law that requires us to evaluate people for asylum. If you dont like it, change it. Could have been done by the GOP in Trump’s first 2 years if they wanted. I also think that this is the result of more than the actions or inactions of Congress. They haven’t done much for years, but something changed. I think policies coming from the executive branch are increasing asylum seekers. The refusal to hire more judges and have more detention ability means that people leave Honduras, or wherever, and the neighbors never see them return. If we were able to process people quickly and return them it would send the message that people shouldn’t come unless they are real asylum seekers.
Steve
ME change it! I’m not Trump’s dad or even a political operative.
The border patrol has only so many facilities, if you don’t like overcrowding when faced with a surge in immigration, go help.