A Dysfunctional Relationship

Roughly 91,000 migrants who crossed as families were arrested last month for illegally crossing the border.  This exceeds the previous record of 84,500 such family crossings set in May 2019 during the height of the border crisis under the Trump administration.  Total illegal crossings in August were 177,000.  It is a simple matter to expel and deport individuals and bad guys; families are more difficult.

While the government has been removing families crossing illegally at a higher pace, many are released pending immigration court proceedings.  The Biden administration ended the practice of jailing and deporting migrant families in 2021 for humanitarian purposes.  As a consequence these families rely-upon local communities for shelter and other support.  Naturally, this stretches the resources of many states and cities.

It is families that have always been the most difficult to expel.  When family detention facilities were used the time it took to screen families for asylum eligibility frequently exceeded the length of time they could be legally detained.  The Biden administration holds the view that it is cruel to expel families especially when they do not pose a security threat.

It is both a humanitarian disaster and a cluster.

If you read your history you don't have to look very far to conclude that throughout our history we have had a fraught and dysfunctional relationship with immigrants and immigration.

Nationality laws dating to 1790 excluded Asians - Chinese and Japanese in particular. Acts dating to 1870, 1875 and 1924 barred immigrant labor from China, Japan or any Oriental country or who were brought here for lewd and immoral purposes (prostitution).  It wasn't until 1952 that the last of the Asian exclusion acts were repealed.

The Emergency Quota Act of 1921 established numerical limits on who could enter the country.  The National Origins Act of 1924 made these quotas stricter and permanent.  This stood until 1965 when race and ethnicity were deemed discriminatory.

Following Castro's revolution, anti-communist Cubans were granted preferential immigration status under the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966.  

There's much more to the story of our struggle with immigration law but the system became one that placed a higher value on skilled immigrants, family reunification and protected those who claimed refugee status from failed and failing nations torn by warfare. 

The Trump administration embraced exclusionary bans and family separation with pandemic-driven Title 42 delivering a setback to asylum seekers at the Mexican border.  Even Biden's administration enacted a similar asylum ban which is now tied-up in the courts.

So, is there any hope left for comprehensive immigration reform?  I dunno.

It seems to me, at least, that with an aging population there is an economic and demographic argument for legal immigration.  And certainly a moral argument for asylum-seekers and family reunification.  Heck, I give the governors of the southern states credit for forcing this issue with big cities.  But here again there is a vocal minority with strong America First tendencies that is both isolationist and anti-immigrant.

And there is the 2024 election.  And both parties will pander to their respective base of support with useless rhetoric designed to keep these voters in a state of turgid arousal.  And as a consequence this humanitarian disaster at the border persists.  All of which comes as no surprise to this old man.

Sigh.

My kingdom for a leader.  And a functioning immigration policy.

Edit to add:

Despite Canada's deal to reduce the number of asylum seekers entering from the US, the overall number of people filing refugee claims in Canada has actually increased.  Many now come by air or sneak across the border.  Learn more here.

Theater of the Absurd

Reasonable people support smart and reasonable border security.  That this has become a crisis is not supported by the facts. 

For starters the number of apprehended individuals at the southern border has declined 75 percent in the past two decades — from 1.6 million in 2000 to 397,000 last year. 

The number of undocumented immigrants in the United States is at a 15-year low.  Of those undocumented immigrants that are here – most of them arrived here legally and have overstayed their visas.  The truth is that they exceed the number who crossed a border illegally by almost two to one. 

Immigrants - legal and illegal - commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans.  The truth is that there has never been a terrorist attack in the United States carried out by terrorists who entered the United States from Mexico.  

To be sure there is a problem with undocumented immigrants and drugs entering the United States.  Nevertheless, it is also a fact that most drugs and undocumented immigrants arrive through legal ports of entry. 

It is also a fact that there is a real immigration problem on the border - Central American migrants have figured out that by showing up at the border in family units, they will be admitted into the country pending the adjudication of an asylum claim.  As a consequence of this the asylum system is overwhelmed and adjudications take what seems like forever. It is a fact that very few Central Americans succeed in their asylum claims.  Yet, almost all end up staying here.  This is because long before the case receives a hearing these would-be migrants can disappear into the U.S. labor market.  Poof!  The truth is that this is a problem.  However, the fix to that particular problem is not a wall. 

This is all quite logical to me – walls take a long time to build.  First of all you have to design your wall.  Then you have to perform the very un-republican act of condemnation and expropriation of privately-owned property by means of imminent domain.  Once you have gotten past the laughable notion of pulling this-off in south Texas – you still have to excavate, grade and build your wall.  That aside – walls make poor barriers.  A determined individual will tunnel under it, climb over it or go around it.  That is the truth – I’m not making it up.  Yeah, I know, railing about a wall can gin-up the faithful and cause rally attendees to get sweaty and aroused.  Nevertheless, with the exception of strategic and specific tactical applications walls are not as impactful on criminal activity as staffing and technological interdiction at legal ports of entry.   

The solution to the Central American  asylum problem is to get more adjudicators into the asylum system.  Right now. This can happen faster than the couple of years it will take to build a wall.  If cases are resolved fast, and border-crossers removed promptly, the surge of asylum seekers will abate.  Just like in 2015 after a crack down on the 2014 Central American border surge. 

Beyond that I’m not sure that there is anything to negotiate.  

I may be wrong but I think there is a very low probability of the Democrats caving on the shutdown.  Paying ransom for hostages only encourages more of the same bad behavior.  Just ask the Israelis.  Besides, Trump has said over and over - Mexico will pay for his wall.  That is the truth. 

In closing I would like to add that my disdain for liars refuses to be tempered. 

The truth hurts sometimes…