U.S. Immigration Crisis: inconvenient realities, partisanship, solutions

Well by now we’ve all been swamped with views on the news and other social media about how evil the U.S. President is for enforcing immigration laws. Now is the big finger pointing for political partisanship. The Democrats did this the previous administration did that, blah, blah, blah.

Granted nobody (with any kind of a heart) wants to see kids in cages and separated from their parents. Some would tell us well kids get separated from their parents if the parents do crimes.  True enough but does the situation require this kind of response? Personally I don’t think so. But crossing into the U.S. illegally is an offense. Photo courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

My biggest problem with this situation is that there is no shortage of people trying to make political hay from the situation (and the Trump administrations response). It would seem that the majority of Americans wanted to see the laws enforced, well this is the result of laws being carried out to the letter of the law. I could show videos ad nauseam with previous administrations from all political parties talking tough talk on cracking down on illegal immigrants.

Simplified: previously, illegal immigrants were not prosecuted (generally) criminally for violating U.S. Immigration laws. Recently (June 2018) the U.S. administration gave a directive to criminally prosecute illegal immigrants. Thus criminal parents (by the letter of the law) were arrested and any children with them detained separately.  Now the BIG difference here is that if a U.S. parent was arrested for whatever criminal infraction, the kids would go to a relative or into foster care.

Reality: It doesn’t matter which administration put this whole mess (criminal prosecution: IIRIRA 96) into place (it was Bill Clinton by the way) or how many others kicked the can down the road (all of em).

Lots of us have seen this picture with the cute little boy being detained by the Evil Empire.

Reality- he’s an American citizen. This picture is from a protest being done by a group called “The Brown Berets”. This protest was held at Dallas City Hall, Texas.

Same kid different context:

Now lets not let this hiccup of news integrity get in the way of something that really should be addressed. So what can a well intentioned and recently outraged person do?! For starters get informed. Any time the media (independent or main stream) shows you pictures of young children (“think of the children”) or young teen girls (remember that young lady who testified to Congress about evil Iraqis soldiers throwing Kuwaiti babies out onto the hospital floor?) your probably being manipulated. Certainly not in all cases. But anytime there is a big outrage or movement to mobilize the masses using children 9 out of 10 times its someones else’s agenda. Why? Well because it works. Because most people are not heartless psychopaths. We have empathy for children, the weak, small cute animals, etc.

Quick video on being manipulated

Immigration Reform

The past U.S. (and alot of other countries for that matter) Immigration polices haven’t solved any problems. U.S. President Trump’s hardline stance (and apparent reform) won’t either. 

So what will work? Can anything? How in the hell did this whole mess start?  For starters there is already a “sponsorship” provision in place, whereas a potential employer can sponsor someone to immigrate providing certain criteria are met. But why not expand that? For instance private sponsorships: church groups, community groups, foundations, not for profits, etc. They can take responsibility for would be immigrant families, helping them learn English and prepare for citizenship exams. Also providing housing, food, clothing, work etc. This would go a long way into integrating people and teaching them the social values and expectations of their host society. It would also relieve the state (and taxpayers) from any financial burden. Then those who want to participate in helping people take an active role and responsibility. In quite a few countries this sponsorship model seems to work.

Now back to the current (U.S.) situation. Why are all these people risking life and liberty? Recently most of the illegal immigrants are coming from about 3 countries: El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The so called “Northern Triangle“ Why? Straight answer: because the violence and chaos of corrupt states mixed up in outrageous  narco-gang warfare and grinding poverty and driving them out.

Other factors:

Simplified: People do illegal drugs (like cocaine and heroin). Society doesn’t like that, makes it illegal. That increases prices (prohibition). Criminals like money and don’t care about illegal. Criminals will use violence to edge out competition (aka gang warfare). Criminal gangs don’t care about collateral damage. Warfare scares (kills, maims, etc) people. People run away from violence and imminent death. These people are “displaced” and run away to a place that seems safe (U.S.). They don’t have time and money to go through legal channels (ie fear of death and dismemberment) so sneak in. U.S. doesn’t like illegal immigration. U.S. detains them.

U.S. hardliners: the old LAW and ORDER types. In all strata of society, not surprisingly many of them are also NO SOCIALIZED HEALTH CARE!!! I don’t have any solution to that. Assholes are going to be assholes. Funny though that when some of them get sick or hurt (or their loved ones) they regret that stance, sadly too late. Also for any haters out there socialized health care is cheaper than corporate/private. Its a FACT. The stats don’t lie. Decriminalization works. FACT.  So please don’t bother arguing with me on that one. Just find something else to be morally angry about.

U.S. illegal drug consumption: if you use heroin or cocaine your part of the problem. The demand/use of just these two drugs fuels a lot of the world’s misery. These are THE two drugs causing most of the problems in Central America today. Granted “The War on Drugs” is your dance partner and equally to blame.

The War on Drugs: well Im no fan of hard drugs but their prohibition is what leads to increase in price and making it lucrative to criminals and covert groups. That’s a fact Jack! The demand side? Well that’s on those that use em. Its a choice. Sure there’s all sorts of factors and pain and hurt. No shortage of sad stories out there. But it’s a choice. As much as it galls me to say this maybe Nancy Reagan had it right when she said, “Just say no”.

Thanks for tuning in, EvS.