3773

Maybe you are just really really good at starting and ending jobs.

3774

March numbers show the largest apprehensions in one month in twenty years.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/march-border-crossing-numbers/2021/04/07/2c252c52-97dd-11eb-8e42-3906c09073f9_story.html

3775

And yet, I still hear that the Demoncrats opened the border and were letting every dirty brown person into the country that showed up.

3776

There is certainly a very large uptick in apprehensions at the border, particularly of unaccompanied minors. Well out of bounds of what would be considered a normal seasonal surge, despite what the WH has said.

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A pretty good analysis putting the surge in context.

The idea that the apprehensions above reflect the government tracking and arresting immigrants trying to sneak over the border is archaic. Now, many of those apprehended seek out federal authorities to proclaim their intent to seek asylum, a process that traditionally couldn’t begin until a migrant is on U.S. soil… Once detained, asylum seekers are often released from custody until their claims can be heard by a judge, a waiting period that can [extend for years].

3777

Pretty transparently, if apprehensions go up, that will be used as proof that Biden is letting everyone through, and if apprehensions go down, that will be used as proof that Biden is letting everyone through, and if they stay the same, that will be used as proof that Biden is letting everyone through.

3778

Gee, I wonder what could have changed between 2020 and now? Hmmmmmmmmmm. Who knows!?

3779

I wish we could drop the term ‘unaccompanied minor’. They are children. We have a tremendous number of children crossing the border without adults and we should treat them like children.

3780

Yeah. We’re a pretty messed up society if we care more about a line graph over a hungry, scared and sometimes sick child.

3781

I’m curious if this will level out when vaccination rates in other countries start to climb. Right now America is the land of plentiful free-ish COVID-19 vaccine for all.

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3784

Interesting article on source for the current problems at the border. Seems there are some tensions between HHS’s Becerra and the WH.

President Joe Biden in April initially agreed to keep the refugee limit in place, siding with Becerra and overruling top officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken. But the blowback from immigration advocates and Democrats on Capitol Hill was immediate and intense, and Biden has since reversed course. Becerra in the meantime has been privately frustrated by the White House’s rush to ease a series of immigration guardrails well before he was confirmed to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, allies said, including a key decision to allow unaccompanied immigrant children to remain in the country. The moves contributed to the already-growing buildup at the southern border, and have since saddled Becerra with managing the fallout from a record influx of asylum seekers.

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3786

Yeah I heard that part of the speech on NPR yesterday.

I’d like to think there is more context and proposal beyond that, but on its own, that isn’t good.

3787

I think people shouldn’t undertake the dangerous human trafficking route into the US is bog standard Democratic policy. It may be wrong, may be right but be the wrong thing to focus on now, but it’s hardly new or surprising.

3788

See that statement:

is substantively different than ‘don’t come’.

Like I am absolutely willing to look for reasonable basis behind the speech, and positive interpretations of the same. And, yes, I figured that it probably goes towards that intent.

But that quote on its own would not have sounded out of place coming from Trump. It was a bad way to put that intent out there.

3789

I mean, the full quote is right there:

“I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come.”

My emphasis, but it’s pretty clear with no context at all what she’s saying.

3790

I think it’s clear the Biden Whitehouse are doing what they can to retain support from blue collar America, including with a less woke immigration policy message.

3791

There is another significant element of context here in that the vast majority of the immigrants from the Central American countries in question are not coming to the US through the regulated legal immigration system but rather attempting to bypass that system and obtain immediate admission via a request for asylum. There is a huge issue with that in that about 85% of the applicants for asylum from the Central American countries in question will not be eligible for asylum, legally. Only about 15% will meet the criteria.

For several years now, there have been periodic surges in asylum seekers from those countries, with large percentages of those cases ending up denied.

Now, why would folks keep coming if they have an 85% likelihood of not getting a valid legal status permanently? I mean, without a valid status, the migrants don’t actually have the ability to work legally in the US, and thus no ability to legally support themselves. An 85% chance of being adrift in a foreign country with no legal means of support seems like a terrible risk. Why would they do that?

Some folks think the answer is that conditions in the home countries are so terrible, the migrants feel they have no choice. However, there is another big part of the answer in the shitty way we in the US do things. That part of the answer is that in this country we don’t enforce our own labor laws. As just one example, we don’t actually require employers to verify Social Security numbers in this country, even though we require employers to obtain those Social Security numbers from employees. (A classic cheeseball loophole to have a law on the books that is actually meaningless and unenforced in the real world.) Labor eligibility enforcement is riddled with loopholes in the law and regs, gaps in enforcement, underfunded inspectors, etc, all down the line. We basically allow people who get into the US, regardless of legal status, to work and for employers to illegally employ them, even though our whole policy regarding immigration and labor is that it should be regulated and legal.

That’s the underlying issue and context here. We have a system that is broken in many ways and this refugee crisis is just a symptom. In that context, Harris is trying to stem the tide of applicants for asylum who are not going to qualify, but who also know that if they can just get into the US, they can work (illegally) and support themselves.

It’s an F’ed up underlying system that has for decades needed comprehensive immigration reform, but b/c of the GOP we can’t have nice things.

What is hilarious (in a black humor way) is that the original 1986 Immigration Act, passed on a bipartisan basis and signed by Reagan is actually a decent framework for what would work but that the enforcement and implementation of it has been so terrible (and so many loopholes have been written/interpreted/exploited into it) that it may as well not have been passed. But the core concept, of legal status for people already here, coupled with increases in legal immigration and serious enforcement of our labor laws and employment laws re: immigrant labor is still the right core concept. But Reagan is no longer a Saint to the GOP; he’s like a minor cherub to Trump’s Deity.

(Please do not interpret any of the above as praise of Reagan. Stopped clocks, etc.)

3792

Great thoughts for sure. To me it seems like the current broken system works for both Dems and Repubs so there’s no incentive to change anything. Neither side wants to “solve” this. Or at least not enough people on either side.