A Plan for the Border
The United States has created a crisis on the Southern Border. Intentionally or not, the Trump Administration policies have failed to deal with the root causes. Because of that thousands are “fleeing the nightmare” (Pete Buttigieg’s words) of Central America. What’s the plan now, and how can we “fix” this?
The Faucet
So what is the Trump Administration trying to do? First, they are discontinuing programs in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala that were trying to improve conditions. By doing this, they are guaranteeing that the root cause of the migration; escaping the poverty and violence for a better life in America, will continue (sounds pretty American, doesn’t it – from the Pilgrims to An American Tail.)
So the concept of “closing the hose at the faucet” isn’t going to happen. The migrants will continue to come; whatever they face on the journey or at the border, it’s better than what they face at home. Parents will continue to send children, hoping that at least they will have a chance. Mexico has neither the resources nor the will to prevent them from entering, and cannot absorb them into their economy.
The Law
There are two opportunities for a migrant to claim the legal status of asylum. The “rules” are laid out in the United Nations’ Refugee Treaty of 1951. The first opportunity is to claim asylum in the “first” safe country the refugee gets to. President Trump would like Mexico to be that “first” nation, making all of the migrants their problem.
The second is that refugees can claim a third nation as their place to claim asylum, and transit other states to get there. That is what is occurring today, Central American migrants are claiming the “right” to transit Mexico to reach the United States. Mexico, also a signer of the treaty, is fulfilling their obligation by allowing migrants to cross.
So here they come. As a treaty signer, the United States has to recognize their right to claim asylum. We are required to allow them access to the Courts to prove their claim, and we have to accept them into the United States if their claim is found valid.
The Trump Administration denies these immigrants access to Court, by not letting them enter at the “Legal Points of Entry.” Thousands wait, while only a few are allowed “in” each day. By doing this, the Administration is generating all of the other problems.
Forcing the Choice
If an immigrant cannot legally cross the border, their only other option to claim asylum is to cross the border illegally, get into US custody, and make their claim in court. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that they are crossing wherever they can, through wilderness and desert, and across the river. Two died yesterday, drowned in the Rio Grande. Four died last weekend, dead of dehydration in the desert, toddlers among them.
Because the border crossings are choked to near closed, migrants are forced to try to enter illegally and “THE WALL” becomes the symbol. The argument goes: if migrants are crossing river, desert and mountains to get into the US, we can wall them out by building a physical barrier. Then they won’t try.
Of course, that’s not true; migrants will continue to try to cross, whatever the barrier. What “THE WALL” would do is make crossing a more expensive effort, requiring more expertise. “THE WALL” will make the “coyotes,” paid to help in the crossing, indispensible. They will know where WALL weaknesses are, whether it is tunnels, or gaps, or ladders, or bribed officials. And they will take advantage of the migrants even more.
The Camps
The migrants get here: one way or another they reach US soil and say the “magic words” of asylum. In the past both individuals and families were processed. They were checked for criminal backgrounds, then released on “probation” until a legal asylum hearing could be held. Contrary to what the current Administration claims, 85 to 90% returned for the hearings. When there were surges of migrants in the past, the reaction was to send more lawyers and judges so that hearings could be expedited.
The Trump administration determined that crossing the border outside of the legal “points of entry” is a crime so serious, that all of the crossers must be held in custody. Since the US cannot hold children in “prison,” they are separated from their parents and given to a different Federal department to be cared for.
With the surge of migration, the need to “detain” all of the illegal crossers meant the need for more and more detention centers. The requirement to not imprison children meant the need for “kiddie centers.” Overcrowding was inevitable, as were abuses.
There was no increase in judges or attorneys, and now the asylum case backlog is stretching over two years. This means those in detention are there for a very long time. Kids are literally growing up apart from the parents and families. It is the worst of all possibilities: more migrants are coming. They can’t legally get in so they come in illegally, and the US ends up with thousands in custody.
Solution
The obvious long-term solution is to go back to the root cause of migration: the poverty and crime in the “Northern Triangle” of Central America. The billions of dollars of WALL would be better spent on trying to change the home environment of those folks, who live in countries with some of the highest murder rates in the world. Long-term, turn off the faucet, and the water will stop running.
But that is long-term, a solution that will take years. Meanwhile, the migrants are coming.
The short-term answer is to stop trying to block the border, and send lawyers and judges. Allow migrants their legal right to claim asylum, and adjudicate their claim as quickly as fairly as possible. Let families and non-criminal migrants to live in the United States, cared for by relatives and non-profit agencies, until their court date is reached.
The United States doesn’t need camps: detention, relocation, or concentration. We don’t need WALL. What America needs is to follow our legal obligations under the treaty, and our moral obligations as human beings. It not only is the right thing to do, it is the best choice for America.
