Trump really enjoys "playing" with human's lives. What a despicable man. Include with the immigrants, the troops sent to the border. It's all politics and of the worst kind.
1
The Trump regime is doing everything it can to make legal entry into the US impossible. Protests about wanting people to enter legally are nonsense.
1
and yet Trump and his fellow Republicans call themselves Christians...
@Joe Bial This is not a theocracy. Christian is not a synonym for good person. Thanks to Christianity abortion is illegal to save a woman's life in El Salvador. The Catholic church encourages over population, discourages education and the rights of women. It's much of the problem down there.
It is my understanding that the current asylum laws arose in the post-World War/Cold War environment where asylum seekers who fit one ideology or another (think Cubans and the one foot on land policy) were given priority. It is definitely time for a "reboot" of asylum laws in the 21st, post Cold War, century.
12
@Leslie Exactly. No more coming here because you can earn more money -- all while using food stamps, housing assistance and medicaid to offset the real costs of your labor.
What puzzles me is that there are people like Mr. Melgar who thought once they reached the US border everything would turn out fine. Where could they possibly get the idea that the US under Trump would be a welcoming place? Didn't they talk to any Mexicans who know full well US immigration policy? Did they not know they need proof of persecution and fear of death and not just their word? My heart goes out to these innocent people escaping tragic situations, but there is no country that I know of that just throws open their borders and lets everybody in. What can stable countries do to help people escape the chaos of their home countries? Certainly I have no answer.
58
@amp People leave their homes when things get bad enough that they feel staying is not an option. They come to the U.S. because they hope that it will be better. Some of them have family here. Many actually buy the notion that America is a welcoming, open and tolerant society that offers opportunity for those willing to work hard. Why is it so puzzling?
@V Nagarajan It's a poem written a hundred years ago. It has nothing to do with the idea of millions of unskilled laborers wanting to enter a society that does not need them. Just because we do not let every every single person with five kids and a grade school education move here does not make us bad people.
4
Most experts say the majority of the caravan members have very little chance winning their asylum cases. By their own admission, they are economic migrants. There needs to be a way to keep those without valid asylum claims from entering the US. Because we all know once they are here, in the years it takes to adjudicate their cases, it will make them virtually impossible to deport. Entering the country has become defacto amnesty. The chance of being deported is minor compared to the chance of being able to live here 10 or more years to the point they cannot be deported. The organizers of the caravans know this is true. The asylum they are looking for is what they get when they cross the border. Once they are here, the odds are they will not have to leave. They might not be legal but they will accomplish their goal.
45
@Caroline, Once they step on to US soil, they are about as temporary as a tattoo.
15
@Caroline That these people want a better life is understandable. But what are we going to do with thousands of semi-literate young men and women? They must first of all be educated to find work in a modern society, that, even as we speak of this, is itself on the threshold of a new technological revolution that will make these new migrants even less likely to find employment opportunities. Most if not all illegal immigrants pass through many safe countries to come to the U.S. According to international law a person can only claim refugee status in the first safe country they find themselves in. We've somehow arrived at a point where only the migrants have rights, we have no right to regulate our borders, to prepare for a future with fewer low-wage jobs instead of letting in a huge workforce of young people increasing competition for those jobs. Why is the only answer, that they have an unrestricted right to come to the U.S.? The more we take in, the easier we make it, the more will try to get here. It is a impossible equation. Too many people believe they have prescribed right to gatecrash Europe & the U.S.– endlessly, regardless of where they come from, regardless of the laws, & regardless of the reality that we can't accommodate all of them. They're country shopping for the best benefits, the treaties & conventions made decades ago that were never meant to facilitate the transfer of huge swaths of one continent to another. We need responsible immigration reform now.
5
My country and my fellow Americans first.
17
I do not think that you are accurately covering this border crossing crisis. News should try to be unbiased.
I have an hour drive to work daily. Since moving from NY to SC, my only options for talk radio is public radio stations and Fox.
At first I only listened to public radio (the first 9 years I was here) then I felt that their news was slanted to who they considered minorities. One can be white, and not be in the majority at their workplace, in their neighborhood or in their school. I am one of those whites-in-the-minority. So I found myself listenning to Fox radio, but I continue to read the times, daily. I enjoyed your recent article about George Soros, it gave me perspective on what I had earlier listened to on the Beck program.
8
The Trump administration's "metering" policy is a travesty. The law says that people can ask for asylum once they cross the border into the United States, no matter where they cross. Trump said no, so people flocked to legal crossings, where they are still vilified and still wait. Even a president must follow the law. That is not happening.
It is not for me or anyone else to judge the merits of someone's request for asylum on the few facts presented here. That is the job of an immigration judge, who can speak with the person asking for asylum. I wish Trump would give them a chance to do their jobs as the law intends.
Moral of the story: Crossing the borders of other nations illegally, or even threatening to do so, is not a good idea. They may enforce their laws about that!
20
So is it the case that an entire nation is life-threatening to all its residents, there is noplace in the entire country they can live safely? Is this true about more than one country...is it true of a dozen or more countries?
Is it also true that those fleeing such nations, in South/Central America or Africa, cannot go to nicer, neighboring nations like Paraguay or Brazil, South Africa or Ethiopia, Jordan or Turkey, but instead have to travel to Europe or the United States?
Why?
The problem with existing asylum laws is that they do not take account of this new phenomenon of "asylum shopping" and people, allegedly experiencing grave threats to their lives, nevertheless having or being given the opportunity to shop for the preferred destination in which to make an asylum claim. Laws of any type need to be updated in order to keep pace with exploitation and abuse, and such updates are badly needed to the broken asylum system.
23
@Oakbranch, Thanks to the internet and YouTube, they can see exactly where it is they want to go to. Why bother with Turkey when you can make it to Sweden.
Or how does Tijuana compare with Seattle?
14
That these people want a better life is understandable. But what are we going to do with thousands of semi-literate young men and women? They must first of all be educated to find work in a modern society, that, even as we speak of this, is itself on the threshold of a new technological revolution that will make these new migrants even less likely to find employment opportunities. Most if not all illegal immigrants pass through many safe countries to come to the U.S. According to international law a person can only claim refugee status in the first safe country they find themselves in. We've somehow arrived at a point where only the migrants have rights, we have no right to regulate our borders, to prepare for a future with fewer low-wage jobs instead of letting in a huge workforce of young people increasing competition for those jobs. Why is the only answer, that they have an unrestricted right to come to the U.S.? The more we take in, the easier we make it, the more will try to get here. It is a impossible equation. Too many people believe they have prescribed right to gatecrash Europe & the U.S.– endlessly, regardless of where they come from, regardless of the laws, & regardless of the reality that we can't accommodate all of them. They're country shopping for the best benefits, the treaties & conventions made decades ago that were never meant to facilitate the transfer of huge swaths of one continent to another. We need responsible immigration reform now.
33
Could someone please inform Jose A. Del Real that someone who has Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is not someone without papers?
3
@ondelette
On it, and by the way, Temporary does mean Temporary, as in not Permanent. Just wanted to clarify that too.
9
The current Trump strategy is plain to see. Deny entry; slow asylum application process; hope they go away. Sadly, it will probably work.
4
Mexico offered asylum and jobs if they settled in one of the southern Mexican states
They declined
Could have headed south to peaceful Spanish speaking Costa Rica or Panama
They declined
More than 80 percent of the asylum claims are denied because the claims are bogus.
28
They need access to both control asap.
6
USAID's foreign aid database identifies between $125 and $180 million dollars flowing from our coffers to Honduras, annually. If we have a flood of "refugees" from their country claiming asylum because, in their words, their country is unlivable, one of two steps should be taken:
1. US aid to Honduras is cut off, and redirected to Mexico or some other Central American host nation--$180 million annually will do a lot to create shelter and work for these refugees.
2. Our asylum laws need to be changed. It's more likely that they just want to make more money, and I give them credit for gaming our wide-open system to get in. But it is not asylum, and we need to use our increasingly scare resources to take care of American citizens who are already here.
30
I heard GM is hiring....in Mexico. Why dont these migrants get asylum in Mexico and go to work for all the American companies that have outsourced any and all jobs to Mexico? If they want good jobs and a cheap cost of living they got it right there. There is more low skilled work available in Mexico then people realize.
27
@Jacqueline Doing what?
1
Um building everything we Americans consume. Cars, TVs, Electronics, Foodstuffs, Air Conditioners, ect. There is more manufacturing on the border in Mexico than in all of California.
10
Picture frames and flowerpots are the items from Mexico I buy most. The quality of Mexican products is generally good.
1
Anyone know why these people look well nourished, fairly clean and well dressed after a very long walk?
24
@Louise Hill Several reasons, including the kindness of other people along the way. Some have some money, of course. How could they travel without it? If you are saying they don't deserve asylum because they are clean, that is ridiculous. There were previous photos of people bathing in rivers and streams.
3
Allowing endless amounts of immigrants into the country is a crime against lower income and working/middle class Americans. It is also unfair to our public school students.
Homeless families and individuals also deserve the opportunity for sheltering over foreign invaders. No mas.
42
Weeks? Months? Try years if you apply through the proper legal process. Why should these Central Americans, in particular, get to manipulate the system and jump the line?
Their stories, and they are just that at this point; unverified stories, are common all over the world and in our own communities. Where do our own citizens living in neighborhoods with pervasive violence and hopelessness seek help and refuge?
35
These immigrants come to the U.S. primarily to escape problems in their native countries (Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama) which includes a stagnant economy, high levels of crime, political corruption and widespread drug use. There is a legal way to request a green card to enter the U.S., however unlawful mobs entry is not allowed. Shame and disgrace of all these central American countries and their governments who fail to feed their people, to give them medical care, good housing, and jobs.
Sorry that your country does not love you anymore. To find true love you need to find and walk on God’s Holy road which will one day open the gate to His Kingdom in Heaven. The road you are currently walking is man made and will only bring you tears and despair, darkness and regrets.
4
I'm sorry but if you think rushing the border will make me more sympathetic you are wrong. No cherry picked picture of a woman running with some kids is going to make me agree that it's a good idea to fling open the doors and let anyone who can cross in.
If anything, this action backfired. It made Trumps deployment of troops to the border look like a smart idea. It proved that these asylum seekers have no concept of living in a country with the rule of law. If they think they can just barge into our country then what else are they willing to do? Lie on their asylum application? Not show up to their hearings? Steal someone's social security number so they can work?
56
@Jacqueline
Jacqueline thank you for your very sensible opinion. I wish that the many others at the NYTs would realize how silly open borders is. Peace.
24
@Jacqueline,
While they await asylum court appearances, if they even bother to show, they can work in the US and receive benefits. Many have babies and it enables them for more money and housing. It's a lose/lose for the US taxpayer.
22
Stop showing photos of tiny cute children. The caravan is made up MOSTLY of young men of miltiary age. Good grief, give us the truth. The blatant tugging of heart strings is absurd. These folks have NO right to enter the US. They need to go home and fix their own countries.
67
@Bar tennant Please share the source of your claims. In fact, everything I've read says that these people are mostly women and children. People don't walk up to 3000 miles for fun.
I have no idea why these people imagine we'd let them break our laws and live here. They don't speak our language. They have little education. They have large families. They are safe in Mexico. It's not a hundred years ago when things were different and the immigrant population had largely the same skills and education as the American public.
Why is it wrong to tell them to go home and fix things back home? Or stay in Mexico where they share much in common with the natives?
53
@Enough Already
1. They are not breaking any laws. Immigration law allows them to present themselves at the border and claim asylum. The Trump administration is not letting them exercise their legal rights.
2. Immigrants at the beginning of the 20th Century didn't speak English, either. Many of them spent their entire lives here without speaking fluent English. We are a melting pot; it's part of our identity.
3. What is your evidence that immigrants used to have better skills? The vast majority of people who entered through Ellis Island did blue collar work here.
4. They are not safe in Mexico. The gangs that hunt them down in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala can and do find them in Mexico. Moreover, the Mexican government doesn't want them.
Your comment reeks of ignorance and racism.
4
@istriachilles
1. They are not entitled to move from a safe space in Mexico to here.
2. That was a hundred years ago long before skype and years and years of taxpayer provided ESL classes. People were told to learn English back then without reservation. Today all we hear from the Dems is that doing so is somehow racist and we should all learn Spanish to pander to such people. One can only imagine your reaction should an American move to a Spanish speaking nation, break their laws and demand everyone learn English.
3. My evidence? Back then no one had a high school diploma. Now, nearly ninety percent of Americans do so. Educational requirements have vastly expanded in the US. They have not done so in Latin America. Go look it up.
4. So these gangs allegedly trailing these people thousands of miles will suddenly stop doing so once they magically hit East Saint Louis or East Orange or Baltimore? Really?
How is the Mexican government allowed to say it does not want them but the American government is not? If the Mexican government can so no, why can't we? For that matter, why can't that government be taken to task for its failure to protect their fellow Latino nationalists?
It is not racism to have immigration laws. That kind of comment makes it impossible to have any rational argument about this issue.
25
Where are the gangs hunting them down in Mexico? Mexico offered them asylum & jobs.
13
I lay this at the feet of a blinded, one size fits all, western education system. My son, an eighth grader, a prolific coder and hater of organized school ( which he is forced to attend :-)), opened my eyes last night with an innocent comment- 'Mom', he said, ' why don't they learn to code for free online?' It then hit me, this thinking is the problem. Privileged, university educated kids who think of Python as the medicine to a better future, hold in their hands, millions of dollars to better the world of the underpriviledged and all they do is evangelize how to make thneeds. Education should be thoughtful, it should be open, it should be tailored to the needs of the community it serves. If I was in a poor village with no resources, what would I need to educate myself on? Perhaps what affects the plants I grow and how I can improve it. How to repair the tin roof on my head? Prevalent diseases, how you get them and how to cheaply prevent them. What basic hygiene means to their health and so on. Really would they care about the map of the world and the UN or any stupid wars happening for esoteric reasons? We have been so blind for so many years and have created a world wide caste system based on how you use your intellectual capital without actually giving poor communities a chance to exercise their potential.
So I beg those organizations involved in changing the world, this is not about you and your ideas on what YOU think the poor need. Think outside your box.
3
How many thousands of people in California were burned out of their home recently? Where's their stories now of having to wait for help? Many are living in their cars and tents in parking lots still. Help our own first for a change. These people at our border, demanding entrance under false asylum claims, will have to wait for as long as it takes. Tired of tripping over our own homeless in the streets and parks of our cities.
66
As we argue as a country about how to deal humanely and appropriately with the surge of Central Americans and others seeking asylum, I'm confused about a companion article about the number of undocumented people in the US.
Recently the NY Times published an article citing researches from Yale that had concluded there were more than 22 million undocumented people and now we have a new Pew study that cites a far lower figure - 10.7. Do we have any idea of the number of people who have come and established lives and families?
Do we have enough staffing to weigh asylum claims and enough immigration judges to hear cases?
17
@DP, The Pew survey obviously did not find the other half of illegals who hide very well and never respond to such queries.
20
Quote from one of those on the border... “The United States is not going to let any of these people in.”
That's good, they seem to be getting the message.
Hopefully now, these people (the massive majority of them) will return to their home countries and spread the 'bad news' that coming to the US is NOT their 'entitlement'.
62
She said she was uncertain where she was headed or whether she would be allowed to stay after telling the American authorities about the gang violence that she said drove her from her home.
That's interesting. I live in Los Angeles and have known those here who who felt the same and both called the police and even moved to different neighborhoods to protect themselves and their families, not flee the country entirely. All this talk of Central American gang violence seems far to simplistic to explain what's really going on. People can look on and resent what they see happening at the border and still be compassionate, just not stupid.
55
It is getting a bit tiring with the press and sympathy that illegal migrants get. If Honduras is not safe, there is a whole set of other safer countries in South/Central America to move to for safety. US as a choice is an economic migration not asylum.
Why doesn't the press give similar coverage to the families hurt by our broken legal immigration system. There are 1000's of legal immigrants working jobs and waiting patiently for over a decade within the US for their green card applications to be processed.
They have good education, strong skills, deal with the uncertainty of the final outcome while paying taxes and raising families with no clear resolution in the works in Congress. The temporary legal immigrants get tax deducted for social security and medicare that they don't get to benefit from.
68
@SV People are fleeing Honduras in large part because of violence that has resulted following a 2009 military coup that the U.S. supported, and which was led by people we trained.
These migrants have a legal right to apply for asylum here, and represent a relatively small number of people in the bigger picture of immigration. Most asylees end up settling in the developing world, not the United States.
What's gotten tiring is the manner in which Americans ignore facts, the law, and basic human decency. We can treat these migrants decently and in accordance with the law while still addressing larger immigration problems here.
5
@SV, get a map out and tell us which countries you are referring to and how one gets there. I count only Costa Rica and Panama, not exactly big places. South of that requires walking through Colombia which both has a war still resolving itself and a million refugees from Venezuela.
As for the poor legal "immigrants", your description sounds exactly like it refers to H1Bs and your cited wait time sounds like an applicant from India. That is a non-immigrant visa, all of those letter visas are from a section of U.S. law that starts, "the term 'immigrant' means every alien except an alien who is within one of the following classes of nonimmigrant aliens, " of which the class is section H subsection 1 clause b. The system isn't "broken" when treats the holder as a non-immigrant.
4
@Pat Blue Ribbon
Americans not ignore facts, some of them just make them up. Your post is a good example. Its our fault these people have to flee Honduras because of a coup we supported huh? Nothing to do with the corrupt President, whose brother was just arrested in Miami for drug trafficking huh? It is not the fault of the United States that every 3rd world country is unacquainted with the rule of law. That is their own fault and no one else's.
15
We need to make the process of applying for asylum as slow, difficult, and expensive as possible. No one should be released into the US, on the false hope that they will return in 2 years for a hearing. The hearings should occur IMMEDIATELY. If we can do no more than 20 per day, fine. We should put up courts on the border, and have asylum seekers enter the court immediately. When asylum is denied (99% of the time), the exit should be back to Mexico. No more catch-n-release. Nope.
56
“Some of those waiting in Mexico have begun to despair.” I truly feel for these people and I despair reading the hate-filled comments here. Just imagine for a moment the desperation of a parent doing whatever they can to save their children from a wretched situation. Who among us would not do the same? To those who say ‘fix your country’ recall that US foreign policy dating back to the 70s promoted destabilization in Central America at the hands of our CIA. Yet it seems our historical amnesia absolves us of any responsibility. Despairing indeed.
12
@Bill Living in a country that has offered them asylum and help where they speak the language is not desperation.
31
1) Please run a whole (carefully researched, mind you) article on the practice of "metering". It was cited in court as part of the reason for the temporary restraining order on the President's proclamation, and Kate Clark of JFS is absolutely correct. The government is deliberately slowing the process to where a court has already declared that an injury.
2) "Those who pass the [credible fear] interview will be allowed to proceed with their case. The less fortunate will be swiftly deported." The less fortunate? Since when was someone less fortunate because they haven't been persecuted? This isn't a game show, migrants the world over have to pass such tests to become asylum seekers, whether asking for asylum in the U.S. or anywhere else. Asylum is granted for those fleeing persecution, if you aren't fleeing persecution you don't get asylum.
3) If these people only face "months" in limbo, they are some of the luckiest refugees in the world. In most places it's multiple years wait for resettlement in conditions worse than what you've reported for the U.S.-Mexican border. In most 2nd countries, refugees are permanently kept in camps and not allowed to work, in some camps there is only one meal a day.
4) When reporting on the camps, your reporters should have a copy of the Sphere manual to refer to. There are metrics that define whether a camp is up to international standards. Multiple days using the boilerplate, "increasingly squalid" tells us nothing.
10
I will reiterate:
Folks who are not going to share in the cost for housing, schooling these folks should not chime in. It's very easy for me to be a humanitarian, if I don't share the costs.
I use myself as a proxy for folks living in generally affluent conclaves around the country.
There are millions of working poor living in low-income areas, which are the areas that these economic migrants will move into. We need to hear from these folks.
Now they have more competition for low-skill jobs, their schools likely already struggling with the current workload will now need additional ESL support for new kids coming in.
They will take the lion share of the costs. And their Congressmen or women are doing them a real disservice if they don't talk all of this into account.
58
@Mehul Shah, In my state there is a 10 to 12 year wait list for Section 8 housing vouchers and even longer for low income housing. Yet if you fall off of the turnip truck you're handed housing, 100 bills and free everything else. I understand the strong desire for these people to come here. Gravy train express.
35
@MS, we have tons of vouchers here. They aren't being used because the cost of housing far outstrips the benefits they create. The reaction of our city is to build more housing because of a "housing shortage". But the people moving into the market value luxury housing being built weren't even here when the permits were approved. So nothing, or maybe less than nothing, is being done on housing.
Not sure what that has to do with anything, you expressly cannot apply for section 8 housing unless you hold an immigrant visa or are a citizen. The only way the people massed at the border could get section 8 is if they have lawful claims of asylum found so by a U.S. immigration court first.
So there is no "gravy train express" here.
1
“We know the United States has the resources and capacity to process these asylum seekers much faster,” said Kate Clark, director of immigration at Jewish Family Service of San Diego”.
Does it? It would be helpful if statements like this were corroborated by some facts about how many asylum officers and other processing personnel there are relative to the number of applicants.
This article talks about the 6000+ who are waiting in line in Tijuana without mentioning the 50,975 migrants who successfully made it across the southern border in October and were apprehended by the Border Patrol, effectively putting them in line for processing ahead of those waiting in Tijuana and all the other border crossings. Additionally, in the previous 12 months there were 396,579 migrants apprehended between border crossings in the Southwest. I’m assuming that all of these people have to be processed before those waiting.
I’m not saying we don’t have the capacity to handle all these people more expeditiously. I just don’t know.
30
@lagunapainter, Kate Clark is absolutely right. They are processing less than a hundred per day. Even if they were strained to the limit, which they are not, the U.S. and any other country that wants to, can request help from the UNHCR. UNHCR processed 4000 per day at Dolo Ado, Ethiopia during the Somali famine, and more than that at Dadaab, Kenya. They are a much smaller organization with far less funding than the U.S. government. They do what we call a credible fear interview and issue cards to those who pass it. That is entirely the same as what the USCBP is doing at San Ysidro, as slowly as they possibly can.
Less than 100 per day is entirely due to a process instituted by Kristjen Nielsen called "metering". It has already been found to be just cause for claiming injury in the asylum process by the Northern District of California. It's a deliberate policy, and it's deliberately violating the requirements that asylum determinations be conducted expeditiously and with dignity. Nielsen's stated reason for it is that it is being used as a "deterrent".
2
@ondelette
Good answer to my question!
If you are in line for a Green Card the wait is easily 15 years or longer.
28
these people say they are fleeing gangs, poverty, and corruption. the US should ask the immigrants from 18 -35 to volunteer as mercenaries and to join a militia. The US would pay them the same as if in US army. train them as elite soldiers who would then return (with US advisors) to each Central American country, one by one) and eliminate the gangs, drug lords, and corrupt politicians. While they are away, the US should take care of their families here in America. Take the funds from the Border Patrol and ICE, funds that have been wasted over many years. It's way past time for serious effective reform to achieve social justice. To determine if the immigrants would support this idea, the Times should ask them and then print the results. Conditions in these Central American nations will not improve w/o drastic military actions on the ground.
7
@edward murphy It is not a waste to defend our borders. We are not responsible for regional over population in Central America.
11
And for citizens on this side of the border it's a long wait as well. For everything government related. These people have been sold a lie, they actually think if they can just get across that goal line they will be handed free money, housing,etc.
35
Thank you, William Case, for making an intelligent and constructive suggestion/solution to the broken system that we have now. I agree wholeheartedly that the US must make a sea change here and it begins by revising the law.
Secondly, the reason that only 20 percent of asylum applications are approved is that only 20 percent are indeed, true asylum cases. What the NYT fails to report is the amount of fraud in asylum cases, which takes time to flush out (thus the longer wait times at the border). It is a fact that many border crossers respond initally that they are coming to the US seeking a job/employment. After two weeks in detainment, that same person will likely answer that they are seeking asylum, as they've learned that this may be a faster/better means of being granted entry. At what point do we start reporting on this, or putting some responsibility on the individuals seeking to cross illegally? Not just the US's slow processing pace. Everyone seeking to enter the US is not doing it honestly and most certainly not legally.
Which brings me right back to Mr. Case and his succinct, intelligent solution below. It is a terrific starting point. Thank you again.
37
Lets talk about long waits, deplorable conditions and what are truly humanitarian crises--The Mexican border has been so thoroughly politicized by liberals and conservatives it has obscured real suffering: Not sure if this link will make it-if not Google--Largest refugee camps and look at images and read a few stories https://www.google.com/search?q=largest+refugee+camps&client=firefox-b-ab&tbm=isch&source=lnt&tbs=qdr:y&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjrtdKItffeAhWfOsAKHaWlCYUQpwUIIA&biw=1280&bih=681&dpr=2
4
No asylum. No immigration from south of the border. We have 20 million here illegally already. Build the wall.
35
The NYT and other media have criticized the recent use of tear gas on hundreds of foreigners seeking to breach our border and enter the US illegally.
However, the media failed to note that under the Obama administration the US Customs and Border Protection law enforcement officials, including Border Patrol agents, used tear gas against illegal immigrants at or near the border at least 80 times between FY 2012 and early FY 2017. (source: USCBP)
There are thousands of foreigners massed at our borders, and thousands more on the way, most of whom are undoubtedly planning to enter the US by means legal or illegal. Most of these people are seeking economic betterment and do not have legitimate claims for asylum.
Anyone seeing pictures of the gap-filled fences at the border must surely realize that even barbed wire and tear gas are insufficient deterrents to hordes of gate-crashers; a wall is clearly necessary. It works in Israel and it will work here.
Let those who wish to enter the US follow our laws and procedures; and let's deport those who are in the US illegally.
74
Hurray! The following passage is EXACTLY what most Americans want to read:
"Some of those waiting in Mexico have begun to despair.
“The caravan has ended here,” José Mejia, 37, said as he waited — in another line — to register with the United Nations to return voluntarily to Honduras. This was his sixth attempt to enter the United States, he said, and he had seen enough.
“People have a false vision, of something that will never happen,” he said. “The United States is not going to let any of these people in.”
-- YES! Go home. That's the point. Apply for a US visa at the embassy in your country through the normal channels. And work in your own community to make your life better.
80
When I applied on behalf of my relatives to immigrate from Korea to the US, they had to wait 2 years, and I had to post a bond. This is the law and we obeyed. I think this group of migrants have been misinformed by special interest groups and are suffering as a result. Perhaps a better investigation into how and who led these poor people to such a fate.
84
@Pepperman I also would like to see an investigation that includes “following the money.” That is, how much of these mass movements have been whipped up by smugglers and other organizations. If newspaper reports are true that it costs maybe $5000 for a person to embark on an irregular journey to the USA. Some people are making a lot of money and will want to make even more.
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@Lawrence, refugees and asylees, unlike economic migrants, come from all strata of society. Yes, there have been people paying quite a bit to get here to ask for refuge. That's always true, the first people to apply for refugee status in the U.S. from Syria were well off and educated. Asylum isn't a job application. It's granting refuge to someone who needs it due to a well founded fear of persecution. There are plenty of governments which persecute people who are well enough off to pay $5000. In other cases, if someone really needs to get out, entire villages or extended families raise the money.
If you want more information, both reliefweb.int (global clearing house for humanitarian efforts) and MPI (Migration Policy Institute) have it. Google is your friend.
@ondelette. I dont quite understand. The people in the caravans are not the “well off.” Otherwise they’d be likely to have visitor visas. But if they are poorer people who are scraping together several thousand dollars to pay “handlers,” an examination of the role of handlers in whipping up business seems rational.
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The United States should revise its asylum laws to permit asylum-seekers to apply for asylum at U.S. embassies or consulates in heir home countries. This would spare asylum-seekers the difficult, and hazardous journey to the U.S. border to submit asylum applications that are much more likely to be rejected than accepted. Only about 20 percent are approved.
At the same time, the United States should revise its asylum laws to automatically deny asylum to anyone who enters the United States illegally. This would unclog the asylum-process system, which now has a backlog go more then 700,000 cases. Asylum seekers know they are suppose to apply for asylum at legal ports of entry, which is much easier than rafting the Rio Grande or trekking across the desert. Migrants game the system by crossing the border illegally and applying for asylum to delay their deportation.
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@William Case, the U.S. and most other countries already have that law. Per U.S. law and terminology, that is called applying for refugee status. We call those who ask for refuge at our borders or within our country "aslyees", and those who ask for it from the outside "refugees".
The reason the U.S. cannot and does not revise its asylum laws to deny asylum to those who enter the country illegally is that it is expressly forbidden to do so by the Refugee Convention and Protocol to which the U.S. is a party. No country that is party to the treaty does that. That is as it should be, someone desperate for refuge gets there however they can.
If you want to know what these laws are, you can go to the USCIS website for this country's laws, and to the UNHCR website for the international law. Maybe the Press should do a more thorough job on these things, but it isn't beyond you or anyone else to inform themselves.
U.S. citizens are often well insulated from anything having to do with immigration, and it shows in some of our policies, which sometimes lack the citizen oversight they would get if they affected us.
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@ondelette
You should inform yourselves. Asylum seekers are not refugees. The law regarding asylum is not the same as laws that apply to refugees. U.S. asylum law states: "Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien's status, may apply for asylum." The alien has to be present in the United States rot apply for asylum.
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@William Case Spot on as always.
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What is the root-cause of these migrations? The $10-Billion that Americans give to drug cartels annually to feed their drug habit as well as fund the cartels.
Until Americans are willing confront the root-cause the problem will never go away and will only get worse. American drug addiction has destabilized nations to the point where the people born there have three choices: join the cartel, be a victim of the cartel, or flee.
Lest we argue that the people of those countries should stay and fight the cartels, Americans abandon areas of the USA where drugs and gangs become dominant leaving behind abandoned areas where only the criminals and those who cannot afford to move remain. We don't fight, we run also. The only difference is that we have the rights and resources to do so.
As long as drugs are illegal, cartels and gangs will control the market and the societal costs will be astronomical. This is but one of the many problems we Americans choose to ignore and blame somebody else for our problems.
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@George N. Wells What is the root cause? The population in all Central American countries has increase by a 4x factor since 1970. Land distribution in those countries is highly concentrated, and the Catholic Church makes birth control difficult if not totally absent. When there is conflict, war, or poverty, look to over-population as a root cause.
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@GeorgePTyrebyter
Yes, and don't forget US meddling in civil wars, backing horrible dictators, carrying out coups against democratically elected governments, etc.
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Trump should take some of our money that he is wasting on endless, incessant, goldbricking, golf outings and put folks out on the boarder who can provide some much needed service to these refugees.
Perhaps we should have Trump wait at the boarder with them.
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Getreal@ what a great idea!! You first!
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The United States has more than 300 legal ports of entry. The wait on the Mexican side of the border is long because caravan organizers direct thousands of migrants to a single port of entry for propaganda purposes.
The wait on the U.S. side of the border is long because hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants not eligible for asylum clog the system by applying for asylum to delay their deportation. About 80 percent of asylum requests or denied. We should streamline the process by revising asylum laws to automatically deny asylum to anyone who enters the country illegally.
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@William Case, on the single port of entry thing, yes, that is baffling, especially when part of the caravan did a multiple day march from Mexicali to Tijuana instead of lining up at the Calexico entry point.
As for the wait being clogged with hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, that's only been since President Trump took office. Before that the number of defensive asylum claims was much lower.
When it comes to immigration law, you get what you refused to pay for. President Obama asked Congress in 2014 for money to pay for more adjudicators, judges and staff for the asylum and immigration court processes. The Freedom Caucus successfully led the defeat of any additional funding whatsoever.
There isn't enough tear gas in the entire world to make up for a backlog caused by not wanting to pay the bills.
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@ondelette
The backlog is created the hundred of thousands of illegal immigrants who file for asylum even though they know they don't meet the criteria.
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@William Case Perhaps you missed it - a federal judge just decided that lining up in the wrong area or passing through the wrong gate is not "grounds" to be denied the opportunity to make an asylum claim.
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There is a report in today's San Diego Union Tribune - "Can Tijuana's need for labor be the answer to migrant crisis?" Companies in Tijuana, particularly the Maquiladora plants, have set up job fairs just outside the stadium that is now serving as a refugee center in Tijuana, seeking thousands of workers for their companies. This may not be what the migrants wanted, entry into the US, but it would give them a better life and a job.
We should be supporting this effort, it would help companies who build things we buy, and just as importantly, it would give everyone breathing room is assess what should be done next to address the immigrant issue.
The events of the last few weeks have brought into sharp relief the fact that our immigration policy is not working. It is time to take that policy out of the land of make believe, and base it on what is really happening.
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@Bruce1253 Yes, we should support this effort of the companies in Tijuana to hire these people, but it must be a Mexican decision. They could have the same problem as the US- as soon as it is known that Mexican companies are hiring these people they could be swamped with many more future caravans than they could provide jobs for.
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@Bruce1253
The US used to have a system that created work permits for those who wanted to come to the US. They were allowed to live and work in the US, could return home for holidays and come back as long as they had a valid permit. This would stabilize the workforce for agriculture, construction and a host of industries. It is not the only way of fixing our immigrant policy, but it is a way that has worked in the past.
Lastly, if there was no work without a permit, there would be no caravans.
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Not sure what these folks were expecting, a room at the Ritz? Walking to the border and demanding entry isn't a plan. You want to come here, first show us that you will respect our laws - and way of life. Last I checked Mexico has offered asylum, and they have plenty of space. I hear GM is hiring down there..
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They've all been offered asylum already by Mexico. They want to get into the US for economic reasons. This is plain to everyone. It is possible to have sympathy for their plight and still recognize we can't allow people to abuse the asylum system in this way.
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Amen. when you're in danger of your life you do not forum shop for a place for asylum. You go to a safe place that will take you. That's place right now is Mexico. That's where they need to stay.
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@Greg, I notice you are one of multiple people plugging the meme that they've been offered asylum already in Mexico. Is this the latest talking point now that it appears many can pass a credible fear interview and it is illegal to turn them away en masse?
The truth is that people can ask for asylum in Mexico, and there is processing for that. It is impossible that Mexico has offered each and every one of them asylum, that makes no sense for any country's asylum program anywhere. There may also be valid reasons for asking for it in the U.S. -- that they have relatives here, for instance. Asylum policies the world over do recognize family reunification as a desirable outcome.
Just as there are no grounds for dismissing asylum claims en masse, there are also no grounds for dismissing asylum seekers as economic migrants just because they haven't asked for asylum elsewhere.
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Boggles how Trump manages. Uses innocent and vulnerable to sell his message. This man has no idea how to research, read, decipher complex issues, and yet, and yet -he is at the top of the decision making chain.
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That’s what she said@ perhaps through your own deciphering of this complex situation you have a better option to be able to safe guard the American public and economy for all the thousands who would like to enter the US?
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@That's what she said Innocent and vulnerable? Have you seen the hordes of young men of military age in the caravans? Give me a break
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