"adapting to a new reality: They may be the final destination, and no longer just a stop on the way north to the United States."
I sincerely hope so!!!
7
The only way to humanely deal with the immigration crisis plaguing the WORLD is for wealthy and powerful nations to address inequality especially in neighboring countries, to prevent a constant influx of people seeking better lives. Exactly HOW to best do this I cannot say but I CAN say that currently the US is doing NOTHING to help promote political stability and economic growth in countries where lots of people want to escape from, landing at our frontiers. Cuba is a perfect example: we have stifled the economy of that island for decades now in an immoral attempt to force political change there. Is it any wonder that people who see no chance of prosperity at home seek it elsewhere? We should not and can not open our doors to all, but neither can we close our eyes to problems that we could engage in and make better if we wanted to.
4
That's great news for Mexico. It would be unfair of the US to take all these hard working immigrants from Mexico, where they are badly needed to do the jobs that Mexicans are unwilling to take, especially when they don't pay the living wage. These immigrants will enrich Mexican culture and Mexican government can't wait to invest more loose tax money in their education. After all, Mexico is a country of immigrants and the US would be wrong to take this gift from them.
24
They are economic migrants, not genuine asylum seekers. They want economic relief, not escape persecution. We need folks like computer scientists, not fruit pickers who are already being automated away by fruit picking machines. These migrants do not possess the skills that will help advance the United States. These migrants will be begging for general labor at Home Depot parking lots all over the country. The correct action for these fake asylum seekers is to keep them out and deport them if they cross into the US.
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The American citizenry is under NO OBLIGATION to offer up our country as a pressure release valve for the world’s overpopulated billions. Our government’s obligation is to serve the best interests of the ‘American citizenry’...Period!...which doesn’t include the over 20 Million illegal aliens brazenly residing here, nor with the tens of thousands attempting to jump our borders every month.
Enough histrionics over this issue. We’re a sovereign nation with defined borders and immigration laws. Deal with it!
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@Michaela I'm sorry, but your nation was directly involved in the political movements that destabilized the countries that most of these migrants are fleeing. Check what your CIA was doing in Guatemala and Honduras before you dismiss the rights these citizens have to flee those polities.
Once again, the blame can be laid squarely on the shoulders of the vested interests who control your government through lobbies and political donations. Being informed might make you more sympathetic.
6
@Gordon
While I don’t disagree with you, Canada is also responsible for quite abusive practices in Central America. I love how all the Canadians post with such holier than thou attitudes. One example here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/13/guatemala-canada-indigenous-right-canadian-mining-company
11
@Me Not supposed to be holier than though, just information to contextualize why people are at the border. Our government here runs exactly the way it does in the US, in thrall to corporate interests. However, our 'security' services have not been as active in the destabilization of foreign governments.
2
I used to travel all over Chihuahua for work in the 1990s. Its a very diverse state with the native Tarahumara but also "Menonita" or Menonite communities of transplanted Europeans similar to the US. I also ran into individuals with Chinese surnames. I was told that their ancestors came to the US to build railroads, then migrated to Mexico for better conditions. There was a significant population that unfortunately was a target of Pancho Villa's rebellion. Not entirely related to this article, but immigrant related nonetheless.
9
Here it’s different — it’s capitalism, it’s better.” we need someone like this woman in the US, she can educate the "Squad" about the difference between right and wrong.
13
Why I can't wait to vote for Trump again.
26
I found the comments by the Cubans quite interesting. Though they would like to move onto the US, they have found a better life in Mexico than what they had in Cuba.
It sounds like Cuba is worse than the Central American countries some are fleeing, yet we still hear from time to time how Cuba is really a worker's paradise. Great health care etc.
I hope those Cubans are granted asylum in the US. Instead of whining, they made the best of a poor deal. Bravo!
19
With all these migrants from the rest of the hemisphere having to stay there, Juarez will become the most diverse city in Mexico (if not all Latin America) and the big winner from the Trump era.
7
If had to choose between living in a crumbling shack next to a sorghum field and taking care of animals versus risking my own and my son’s violent death back home, I’d gratefully make a new life in Mexico. If Saul is seriously considering returning home, then I can’t help but wonder how real the threat of persecution is in his native country.
29
So in other words, Trump's policy is working.
44
With the story in the NYT today,about the coming food and water crises around the world there will be more and more refugees. Current estimates include 75,000 in refugee camps and many more leaving their homelands. This story is just the tip of the iceberg.
Our legislators on both sides have failed us by not addressing this. Why would we allow people who come in illegally to skip to the head of the line when so many are doing it the legal way? Common sense is not prevailing in either party.
33
These illegal immigrants know how to game the system and are upset that they are no longer allowed to come to the US, to be set "free" while they wait for their asylum hearing, which they will not show up for, never to be seen again. Trump is trying to stop this. We need to enforce our immigration laws just as most other countries do. With climate change this situation will get exponentially worse. The wall may be the best way.
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@Sarah99 How are they "illegal immigrants" when they haven't crossed the border? Also, applying for asylum is 100% legal and protected by both US and UN policy. The border crisis is one of failed policy, not some sort of supremacist narrative of invaders.
3
I hope this story is widely disseminated in the many countries whose migrants hope/plan to enter the US illegally.
I also expect that, with increasing numbers of migrants getting stuck on the south side of the US border, Mexico will see the wisdom of controlling the influx of migrants from south of its borders and elsewhere.
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The United States continues to have one of the most generous immigration policies among nations.
Merely enforcing our borders -- while distasteful to the 'open borders' / globalist left -- doesn't change that fact.
31
No, folks, hate to confuse you with facts, but the Trump administration definitely is not ‘pro legal immigration.’ In fact, his personal Rasputin and self-appointed ‘immigration policy expert,’ Stephen Miller, proposes drastically reducing legal immigration through imposition of a quota system not unlike the race and religion based system enacted in 1924 and repealed long ago.
Yes, mlk of Sweden, one way to reduce the flow of immigrants from Central America, and to create stronger, more stable and friendlier neighbors to our south, would be to increase aid to those countries so people will feel less compelled to leave hunger, poverty, violence and persecution at home. But again, facts get in the way. Trump slashed aid to nations like Guatemala by about 75%. We just appropriated over $2 billion for ‘increased border security’ and Trump is diverting billions more for detention centers, deportations and ‘building a wall.’ Aid to Guatemala for 2019? $82 million, down from $265 million in the year before Trump’s inauguration. Trump’s annual travel budget — so he can shuttle back and forth to resort properties to play golf and schmooze — is more than our aid to Guatemala.
Trump does not want to stem the flow of migrants... he wants them to come, so he can bellow ‘we’re being invaded’ and pander to the ‘base’ by playing tough guy.
This isn’t immigration policy, it’s reality tv — which is as close to ‘policy’ as Trump is able to go, given his limited knowledge and skill set.
7
Mexico has happily exported around 6 million of its citizens to the US in the last two decades. Doubtless, they were delighted to be relieved of burden of supporting their poorest and least educated citizens. Now they are expressing outrage at supporting the folks crossing their southern border.
Seems like cosmic justice.....what goes around, comes around.
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@Bongo These Mexican people you describe, who have families and live and work in your community, by the way, wouldn't have emigrated to the U.S. if there wasn't a labor market hungry for them. If you've ever eaten processed pork or purchased fruit from anything that isn't a local farmer, then you've supported that system.
3
Exactly right. There would be no construction or any maintainence services without them. The majority of Americans do not want to work all day doing manual labor. I have maybe 1 in 30 white guys applying for jobs. And the myth that immigrants are paid less is not true in my experience. I am a contractor in the Coachella Valley and the labor shortage is crazy.
1
Non-union labor are scabs. Use union labor or don't build.
Do we need more land ripped up?
9
If Republicans think the immigration crisis is bad now, wait until Island nations are swallowed up by rising seas!
4
The US cannot and should not take every unemployed person and their family in as immigrants or asylum seekers. Mexico has traditionally assisted its excess population to move to the US and has encouraged any one arriving at its borders to proceed north. Trump has disrupted this corrupt system. That's the good part. The bad part is the population growth of that part of the world will continue to produce far more people than it can ever support or employ. Any attempt at slowing this tidal wave has to, in addition to include to an overhaul of our antiquated immigration and asylum laws and enhanced border security, assistance to these countries involving economic, security and family planning. The population of Mexico and Central America has gone from~40 million in 1950 to ~160 million now. That part of the continent cannot ever support that many people and neither can we.
36
This article, like many on the "migrant" crisis, seem premised on the assumption that people without any legal right to enter the country and/or to stay somehow are being unfairly treated and excluded from the US. They are not kept out by "Trump's wall" but by the fact that they don't have a legal basis to enter or remain in the US. Everyone knows or should know that very few migrants every qualify for political asylum - instead the use the process to enter the US then remain here illegally when they fail to show up for hearings or honor deportation orders. PLEASE, enough with the sympathy for people who want to enter the country without legal bases and demonizing the enforcement of the law. CHANGE THE LAW to permit immigration that the nation agrees is appropriate - don't encourage people to enter illegally and suffer the consequences.
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@Daniel Yakoubian. There is no consensus built on a fair airing of the facts and numbers as to how many immigrants we can take in. As this number affects everything from the environment to climate change to resource use to... well, everything we should put a moratorium on any but the most essential immigration until this number is agreed upon.
12
"President Trump’s strict anti-immigration policies mean that a growing number of migrants are stranded in such cities. "
We are merely protecting our borders from the invasion of the alleged asylum seekers and all other sort of border-crossers. It is not "a strict immigration policy" and we are by no means responsible to what is happening on the Mexican side. We can and should help though in the humanitarian sense, but on the Mexico's soil. If Trump's wall is working, that can only be seen as a good news. For the Americans, not so for the stranded folks, the Mexicans and the liberals.
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@ss "invasion". That sounds familiar. Looks like the far right isn't satisfied with the massive bloodshed they've already inspired.
1
@Mike That sir is a logical fallacy. Not an argument. Next.
5
Only a month or two ago the NYT and my fellow Democrats were vociferously denying that there was a crisis at the border. Almost overnight there was a sea change and now the border is in crisis, which most of us have realized all along.
I believe most Americans welcome LEGAL immigrants, but do not want ILLEGAL immigrants. They recognize that the US cannot afford (or choose not) to support our own citizens: the poor, the ill, elderly, disabled, veterans, et al., and that they and other US taxpayers cannot possibly support the hundreds of millions of foreigners who would like to come here.
US laws allow foreigners to seek entry and citizenship. Those who do not follow these laws are in this country illegally and should be detained and deported; this is policy in other countries, too.
The cruelty lies not in limiting legal immigration, or detaining and deporting illegal immigrants, or forcing those who wish to enter the US to wait for processing. What is cruel, unethical and probably illegal is encouraging parents to bring their children on the dangerous trek to US borders and teaching the parents how to game the system to enter the US by falsely claiming asylum, persecution, etc. Indeed, many believe bringing children on such perilous journeys constitutes child abuse.
No other nation has open borders, nor should the US.
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@Mon Ray
Sssshh! Do we need to explain it to you? Back then it was Trump saying it was a crisis, and the only reaction possible is to deny what he says has any validity. Period, end of story. He was saying it was a crisis and calling for action. We denied it was a crisis because we were happy with streams of immigrants coming over the border illegally. Because it's their right to do so. Or because kids in cages. Or concentration camps. Or something.
But now we can call it a crisis because we want use it as a call for action. Get it?
Now let's get back to ranting about how that monster expects immigrants to announce their application for asylum at a point of entry. Ridiculous! It should be that someone pays a coyote to sneak them in illegally completely intending to subvert the system, eventually gets caught then pulls out the get-out-of-jail-free card of an asylum claim. Because that's the American way. Next we can wonder why this message is lost on much of the country, red or blue.
18
By Trump's "strict anti-immigration" policies you mean Trump's strict stance against ILLEGAL immigration, right?
Pretty sure he is pro LEGAL immigration.
Leave it to the "bastion of solid journalism" to conflate legal immigrants and illegal immigrants.
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@Dee This deliberate omission, made on purpose to confuse readers and make immigration about race, needs to be pointed out on every occasion. The liberal media is just as bad as Tucker Carlson who says "white supremacy is a hoax." Both sides are playing a dishonest game, and the left is going rogue here, too.
26
If these people are asylum seekers , who are trying to escape crime, they have.
Or are they seeking asylum for economic reasons.
if so then NO, let them stay in MX.
36
The refugee conventions were made for a different time when most refugees settled in their region. Now they see a good life elsewhere thanks to TV and internet and want to head to the West.Economic migration with the pretense of persecution. Countries in the West must increase aid and support these refugees in their neighboring countries.Relocation is not the answer.
36
@Mik--Yeah, a couple of dozen Muslim or Muslim-majority states in the world, yet EUROPE gets more thana million Muslim "refugees" who dodge applying for asylum in Hungary in order to get to the richer EU countries such as the UK or Germany. Same thing as happens on our southern border.
10
In 1951, countries from around the world agreed to entertain asylum requests from anyone who was fleeing persecution based on their religion, race, nationality, politics, or membership in a particular social group. Traditionally, everyone who has applied for asylum here had been allowed to enter the country and wait in detention until their immigration hearing.
All this changed when a surge of families began requesting asylum, and a judge ruled that children could not be detained for more than 20 days. Obama decided he could not detain the parents any longer than the children, and so let them out into the general population to await their court hearings. The problem with this was that up to 40% skipped their hearings and just became part of the undocumented population.
In addition, the ever increasing numbers of migrants requesting asylum meant that hearings might not be scheduled for years. In the meantime, the migrants found housing, jobs, and gave birth. Those who did show up at their hearings and were found not to qualify for asylum claimed that it would now be a hardship for them to leave.
Even though 85 - 90% of Central Americans do not qualify for asylum under the 1951 Refugee Convention, virtually everyone who gets into the country manages to stay. This is why Trump is making some of those requesting asylum wait in Mexico for their hearings. He has expedited their hearings so new arrivals do not have to wait as long as before.
48
This is probably the only issue trump gets right. It's also the issue the democrats continue to get wrong. They need to wake up before 2020.
20
@ann - Actually no, the 1951 Refugee Convention was intended to address the issue of displaced people in Europe after WW11. The 1967 Protocol was added to add the rest of the world to the Convention. Two experts Paul Collier and Alexander Betts have written "Refuge: Rethinking Refugee Policy in a Changing World" March 30, 2017. It is obvious, and one does not have to be an Oxford scholar as are these two authors, that the current system of asylum is unsustainable.
1