originally posted by: FinallyAwake
Hi I'm a Brit and I'm new (in showing interest) to politics.
I've always (wrongly) assumed I am non political, but the more I watch and read, the more I seem to lean right/republican (if I was American)
I just wanted to know how long the crisis has been a crisis now, and has the problem got consistently worse over the last say, 20 years?
Thanks in advance.
FA
The situation got real bad in 2007 when it was estimated that there was up to 20 million who had, over the previous decades, entered the country
without approval and had made little attempt to be documented and gain citizenship.
Some, however, were born in the US, but to unapproved migrant parents and in this way, they hoped to legitimize their presence in the US. Previous
governments acknowledged these native born 'undocumented' and set up special schemes like DACA to legitimize things. But even these schemes were
opposed in government and had dubious legality until entirely approved as law.
However, each successive government has attended to the total problem and the numbers of unapproved migrants within the US have been reducing since
then.
Along side that, there have been some regime changes in Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala that have imperiled much of their populations, either
through crime or direct government action. It has been argued that the reasons these anti-humanitarian governments have taken power, has been due to
the meddling in their politics by the USA, by both government and private companies.
Because of the danger of death if these people remain in their birth countries, many are leaving and attempting to gain either refugee or asylum
status (which have slightly different meanings under US law). Also, because these people have had to leave only with whatever they can carry, they are
crushingly poor. Absolute proof of this is that they cannot afford transport such as buses, plane flights or to drive overland in their four wheel
drives but, like the caravans, thousands of people walk thousands of miles (some of those people even do so barefoot).
So, they arrive, mostly at the US border official ports of entry with no accommodation, in donated clothing, with no income at all, dirty, tired,
unhealthy and desperate.
Then they attempt to get asylum from the US. To do this requires that they fit a narrow and fairly reasonable criteria and that they can only do so
from on US soil (they cannot apply at embassies which are not equipped to feed, clothe, house and adjudicate numbers of people).
Some try coming and registering at the ports of entry, which are already experiencing processing delays (some have already been waiting 4 years).
Other try and force their hand by crossing the border and then immediately surrendering to border patrols (which is legal under current US law),
requesting asylum.
Even these things do not guarantee asylum. Only about 10% are accepted. The rest are detained and deported.
Partly at issue is that there is a cap on the maximum numbers of asylum seekers per year, and this number is set in advance by the President of the
US. There have been estimates that 100,000 people are arriving every month but the current cap in asylum and refugee acceptances is 90,000 - per
year.
This leads to the immigration services having policies requiring that they 'turn away' the majorities of potential asylum seekers, with no legal
appeal. Despite it being contrary to what they are supposed to do under the law.
But they do what they are commanded to do, and are effectively, along with ICE, sending more out of the country than are coming in. Hence the
reduction in numbers since 2007 from 20 million to an estimated 10 million unapproved migrants left in the country today.
As such, there is a growing humanitarian crisis on the
other side of the border, but in terms of national security, there is no crisis and
everything is being processed in due time.
To top it all off, Trump has made the implication that drugs, terrorism, rape and high unemployment are all the result of these unapproved migrants.
Much the same as Hitler put the blame for his countries woes unfairly on the Jews.
This has made Trump extremely popular with the inhumane, ignorant and highly propagandized citizens of America (just like Hitler was with the same
people in Germany). The truth is 50% of any population are of below average intelligence (that is how the numbers work) but few of them are willing to
concede such a point - perhaps it is obvious why?
None the less, the humanitarian crisis is on the other side of the border and is not affecting the national security of the US. But everything about
the crisis has been manufactured by the US, a least in many people's view.
edit on 29/6/2019 by chr0naut because: (no reason given)