The secretary the headed to to the Hidalgo - Reynosa International Bridge where his podium was conspicuously placed in front of the current border fence. Secretary McAleenen, who is a former CBP Commissioner, stated that the solution to the current crises is to de-incentivize people from crossing the border and that responsibility falls squarely with law makers, and the laws need to change to address the problem.
Call me forgetful, but that sounds eerily similar to the "solution" proposed by Ronald Vitiello, the former DHS Secretary who was fired by President Trump for not being tough enough on the immigration problem.
I'm no expert on immigration law but from I'm seeing from the border and working on border security, I see current proposals as treating the symptom and not the illness. Currently, the US and Americans along the border are bearing the cost of dealing with the "humanitarian problem" while the real problem is not being address.
Recently, I spoke with a former co worker who returned from duty in El Salvador. He told me that in San Salvador, there are literally billboards and banners posted around the city encouraging it's citizens to go to the US and seek a better life by claiming asylum. From what I heave read during my duties here, The cartels, and gangs in El Salvador and other Central American countries are also encouraging the exodus and profiting from the immigrants who sometimes pay up to $5,000.00 per head to be smuggled into the US. They are then told all they have to do is claim asylum and they're allowed into the US.
The cartels also sometimes use the immigrants to smuggled drugs while crossing the river into the US knowing full well, the immigrant has practically no choice but to cross the drugs. If the Central Americans governments are encouraging their own people to leave and the cartels are going to make a profit, why wouldn't they come? Legally or illegally. Why are these immigrants asked to leave their country? These people are the poorest, the bottom of society that the government will no longer have to support. To the cartels, they are profit without risk.
It is true that some of these immigrants are in the crosshairs of gangs and cartels for various reasons and could use asylum but as it stands right now, they are all being lied to with promises of asylum in the US. This is where the US needs to address the problem, not just with de-incentivizing people from crossing the borders.
I feel that dealing with the Central American and Mexican governments by de-incentivizing them first will likely reduce the numbers to manageable levels in the US. Next, start enforcing the ignored law of penalizing US employers who hire illegal immigrants.
As the "humanitarian" issue stands now, CBP and Border Patrol are understaffed and overworked, resources are stretched to the breaking point, and public outcry is tangling up our government with political correctness, plain politics, and anger. In the mean time, the immigrants keep coming and Border Patrol agents are being pulled off the front lines in order to manage the mass of humanity at holding facilities while addressing their medical issues, determining familial statuses, and criminal history, all of which must be done within 20 days.
In McAllen, Sister Norma Pimentel who operates the respite center is also stretched thin by taking in up to 400 immigrants per day and sending them off within 48 hours with bus tickets. Then there are those who don't get caught by Border Patrol and make their way to point all over the US. I seriously doubt de-incentivizing them will stop much unless the US addresses the origin governments first.
This past March, Border patrol apprehended approximately 92,000 immigrants along the southwest border, (an all time high), including families and unaccompanied minor children. It is clear the immigrants know how to game US law but our government still wants to deal with this problem as humanitarian issue rather than an illegal immigration problem due to outdated and unenforced laws. Presenting the current problem as a humanitarian issue is mostly due to public outcry of immigrants dying in custody and the images of people in "cages" presented by the media.
A temporary soft sided shelter is proposed near McAllen to house some of the immigrants in an effort to alleviate other overcapped facilities and already it is being called cruel by some people and politicians. (Good enough for our troops but not illegal aliens). This proposed facility will have much better amenities than I ever had in any GP medium I ever had in the Army. But then again, politics are running this show, not logic or law.
Act with common sense, don't react with emotion.
eModicus
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