A Tale of Two Borders: How Democrats’ Perpetuated This Humanitarian Crisis
In January, when 47,980 illegal immigrants were apprehended at our southern border, it was a manufactured crisis. 5,107 were unaccompanied children.
In the words of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer, “This president just used the backdrop of the Oval Office to manufacture a crisis…”
In February, when 66,884 illegal immigrants were apprehended at our southern border, it was a manufactured crisis. 6,818 were unaccompanied children.
In the words of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, “…building a medieval wall along the entire U.S. southern border as a (non-evidence based) solution for a crisis that does not exist…”
In March, when 92,840 illegal immigrants were apprehended at our southern border, it was a manufactured crisis. 8,968 were unaccompanied children.
In the words of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, “A fake crisis at the border is fear-mongering of the worst kind — and we’re not falling for it.”
In April, when 99,304 illegal immigrants were apprehended at our southern border, it was a manufactured crisis. 8,900 were unaccompanied children.
In the words of Sen. Patrick Leahy, “With illegal border crossings declining for years, and no true crisis to point to, President Trump has spun a manufactured crisis…”
In May, when 132,887 illegal immigrants were apprehended at our southern border, it was a manufactured crisis. 11,507 were unaccompanied children.
In the words of CNN’s Don Lemon, “This president wants to distract you with all his talk, lies, about criminals at the border, with his fake national emergency, while ignoring the real one that’s killing our children…”
In June, as over 150,000 illegal immigrants are set to present themselves at our southern border, the of tone the Democrats has changed. Accusations of a ‘manufactured crisis’ are no longer politically convenient, as the desperate conditions at the border call into question our basic humanity.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez now refers to immigrant detention centers as concentration camps.
Sen. Schumer accuses the President of playing political games instead of fixing the problem.
Don Lemon can barely bring himself to look at the heart wrenching photo of an infant and her father who drowned attempting to make the treacherous Rio Grande crossing.
This humanitarian crisis, tearing at the moral fabric of our society, has been building for years.
Democrats denied it. In doing so they caused it.
Here’s the problem. The border crisis is an incredibly nuanced issue; but it isn’t reported that way. We only understand it in small emotional soundbites and heartbreaking images. But empathy alone doesn’t lead to good policy. If you understood the roots of this humanitarian crisis, your outrage would be directed at the Democrats.
So how did we end up with children sleeping on floors, lacking even the most basic essentials?
It’s not the first time. A photo of migrant children wrapped in aluminum blankets, sleeping on the concrete floor of a southern detention center went viral this week; but it was taken during the Obama administration. This crisis has deep roots in years of bad policy, broken infrastructure, and in choosing to only care about the suffering of children when it suits us politically.
When an unaccompanied minor presents themselves at the border, the immediate goal of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is to find a relative or legal guardian within the United States with whom they can place the child; but this takes time.
Precautions must be taken. Background checks must occur to ensure these are legitimate relatives with no histories of abusive behavior, lest these children be exposed to the horrors of human trafficking.
By law, originating from House Democrats, unaccompanied minors cannot be placed in these homes until they are released into the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where they are supposed to be cared for while they wait. This is where the crisis begins. Because of the overwhelming numbers, HHS is out of resources and out of space.
On April 4th, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar reported that the federal government expects to run out of money for caring for migrant children and will likely have to ask for more. They desperately did. Democrats blocked the funding, painting the situation as a ‘manufactured crisis’.
On May 30th, acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan stated, “Over 2,350 unaccompanied children — the highest level ever — are currently in custody waiting for days for placements in border stations that cannot provide appropriate conditions for them because Health and Human Services is out of bed space, and Congress has failed to act on the administration’s emergency supplemental request for more than four weeks.”
Because HHS is out of bed space, by law unaccompanied minors are forced to stay in the custody of Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), which lacks the resources and infrastructure to care for these children. These are the ‘camps’ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex is referring to. These are the images you see on TV.
These are the result of broken laws passed by Democrats, and the emergency funding they have refused to provide because of a crisis they refused to acknowledge — choosing to instead play politics.
On June 25th — months too late, House Democrats finally acted, passing their own version of the $4.5 billion in emergency humanitarian aid to the border; but it comes with strings and poison pills as they use children as political bargaining chips. They know it cannot pass. Children will still sleep on floors tonight.
The root cause of the larger crisis at our southern border is a series of broken asylum laws with an extremely perverse incentive: they encourage the smuggling of children.
According to the New York Times, “These days, thousands of people a day simply walk up to the border and surrender…The smugglers have told them they will be quickly released, as long as they bring a child, and that they will be allowed to remain in the United States for years while they pursue their asylum cases (Shear, NYT, 2019).”
Because of the Flores Settlement, and the lack of funding for adequate detention facilities and beds, families who present themselves at the border can only be held for 20 days before they are released into the United States, essentially creating an open border. Bringing a child on this incredibly dangerous journey allows for the exploitation of a loophole in our immigration law and asylum policy. This has consequences.
We’ve incentivized human trafficking and smuggling. As reported by the WSJ, “U.S. Border agents have identified 2,400 “false families” over the last year as smugglers pair adults with unrelated children.” It is the reason we have seen such a drastic increase in families and unaccompanied minors making the often-deadly journey, on which 68 percent of the migrant and refugee populations report being victims of violence. It is partially responsible for the heart wrenching photo of an infant and her father who drowned attempting to make the treacherous Rio Grande crossing.
But heartbreak can be politically convenient.
In May, Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced legislation that would productively and positively change the current asylum process, effectively closing these loopholes and helping us deal with the humanitarian crisis we’ve created.
Democrats refuse to even hear the legislation.
Republicans share a portion of the blame. Incendiary rhetoric from the Trump administration and the obsession with the wall have crippled our ability to find real bipartisan solutions in such a tumultuous political climate. They made the wall the hill they wanted to die on, and in many ways have paid the price.
But there remains little excuse for Democratic inaction and hypocrisy when it comes to the humanitarian crisis at our southern border.
If we stopped playing politics for one day, we could pass the Senate’s bipartisan $4.5 billion emergency humanitarian aid package, Sen. Lindsey Graham’s asylum reform legislation, and the Dream and Promise Act of 2019. We would all wake up in a better world tomorrow.
Joshua Wexler, 2019
