The Setup
Let’s be clear about the current United States’ strategy on the Southern Border: it’s a setup. The Trump Administration’s Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice have established policies that are designed to get exactly what we are getting: a crisis on the border. Here’s how it works.
Prior to the current policies, the United States abided by the treaties we signed on immigration and asylum. We recognized that when an immigrant gained US soil they had the right to claim asylum. Then, their asylum claim would be adjudicated in a Federal Court (Immigration Court) and they would either be allowed to stay, or deported.
Before, when we became aware of a surge of immigrants hitting the border crossings, we would send additional judges. Immigrants who crossed illegally were apprehended, processed, and released until their hearing, often with an ankle monitor, a commonly used court technique to keep track of folks on parole or probation. Ask Paul Manafort, he had two monitors awaiting trial; when he still violated his parole conditions, then they put him in jail.
The key to the current crisis is the term “gained US soil.” It has always been illegal to cross the border into the United States outside of the controlled ports of entry. That crime is a misdemeanor offense (8 U.S.C. Section 1325, I.N.A. Section 275.) The current Administration decided that instead of releasing illegals before trial, they would arrest and incarcerate everyone who crossed illegally. They also decided that they would NOT increase the number of Immigration judges available for asylum hearings, and they executed a slow-down at the legal port of entry locations. The results of this policy were readily foreseeable.
There was a rapid increase in the need for places to hold illegals, basically some form of jail. And since many illegals were bringing their minor children, the government was placed in the position of caring for all of those children. The Federal District Court in San Diego had long before ruled that children could not be held in custody (the Flores Decision) by the Department of Homeland Security for the actions of their parents, meaning they could not jail the kids with the parents.
So the Department of Health and Human Services was dragged into the fray; they were tasked with the care of all of those children. The sheer number of kids was overwhelming: Health and Human Services ended up using facilities all over the nation to house them. Parents were in one place, kids in another, two different agencies were trying to keep track of them; it was the guaranteed disaster we saw last summer. And it still continues.
More recently, the Administration has further slowed the legal entry process at the points of entry. This has caused a “stack up” of immigrants in the most vulnerable location; the border towns of Mexico. They are dependent on locals for food and shelter, at risk from criminals and literally “trapped” up against the US border. It should be no surprise then, that they are easily persuaded by “coyotes” to attempt an illegal crossing.
But to have a chance of success, the crossing needs to be made at a remote location, far from the well-guarded bridges and legal crossings. The American Southwest is mostly arid wilderness; immigrants are pointed north and sent out ill-equipped to deal with the conditions. So people die, children suffer, folks who live there feel threatened by the often desperate people who appear at their doorstep: the Administration has “squeezed” immigrants into taking huge risks.
Again, this was all foreseeable, but the policies that created this were intentionally designed. Senior Administration officials have said again and again; if getting in the US is dangerous and hard, they think immigrants will stay home. Those officials have missed the important point: the conditions the immigrants are leaving are so intolerable that the risks of staying outweigh the risks of leaving.
And it is just possible that the Administration enjoys political benefit from the crisis. It keeps the Trump “base” involved and concerned, with each new event on the border generating more need to build “WALL.” Of course, “WALL” won’t change any of the other issues on the border, it will simply squeeze the immigrants into even more dramatic actions. Whether it’s tunnels (already in San Diego area) or ladders and ramps, a simple “WALL” neither secures the border nor stop illegal immigration.
So the crisis is created, a setup to keep Americans focused on the border. And like any distraction, it begs the question: what are we missing?
