Border Crisis (03/16/21) (FEMA is for Use in DISASTERS)

 The southern border.  (see My Take, below)

 Under current U.S. policy, unaccompanied migrant children who are taken into custody at the U.S. border are not allowed to stay in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) for more than 72 hours.

 Once those three days pass, they are supposed to be turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services, where they are housed with family, sponsors or in a shelter and oftentimes scheduled to return for a court hearing to process their asylum cases.

U.S. law gives these migrants a legal right to come here: “You may apply for asylum with USCIS as an unaccompanied minor if you [a]re under 18 years old, [h]ave no lawful immigration status in the United States, [and h]ave no parent or legal guardian in the United States available to provide care and physical custody.”

However, facilities at the border are currently being overwhelmed. More than 29,000 children have been apprehended while crossing the border since October 1st, the beginning of the 2021 fiscal year, according to The Wall Street Journal. During the entire 2020 fiscal year, about 30,000 children crossed the border with their families. Last month alone the number exceeded 9,000, an increase of 63% from January. On March 12th, the Associated Press reported that Border Patrol agents had more than 3,000 migrant children in custody, a record high, with the figure climbing daily and many exceeding the standard 72 hours allowed in custody. The full picture is just as concerning, according to The Washington Post:

Border arrests and detentions during the final months of the Trump presidency rose to some of the highest levels in a decade, but illegal crossings have skyrocketed since Biden took office. In February, detentions topped 100,000, a 28 percent increase from the previous month, and March is on pace for an even larger surge, with more than 4,000 border apprehensions each day, according to the latest U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures.

In the last month, there has been growing concern about the treatment of unaccompanied minors who are crossing the border and calls for action to slow down the wave of immigrants trying to enter the U.S. The Biden administration announced the opening of two new emergency shelters, one in Midland, Texas, and the other in Dallas, designed to house thousands of children before they are moved to permanent shelters or reunited with family.

While the Biden administration has resisted describing the situation on the border as a crisis or emergency, the 

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has also been activated 

to find and expand facilities for the children while many adults and accompanied minors will be returned to Mexico. Hundreds of immigrant children have been detained in a tent facility in Houston. Last week, the Biden administration denied access to lawyers from the National Center for Youth Law who wanted to observe the conditions in the tent facility.

Under Trump, the CBP had 

My take.

In some ways, this is the worst-case scenario for Biden. You have the progressive left hammering you for the conditions migrants are living in. You have the moderate Democrats concerned about the political damage and criticizing you for mishandling a relatively stable situation you inherited. And you have Republicans talking about nothing else but the fact there’s a crisis on the border, with thousands of kids in government custody, thousands more coming soon, and a wave, surge, rush or “invasion” of immigrants — all words they use in the hope voters will turn out in 2022.

Despite being hammered by both sides, not everything Biden has done is bad. His government is working to reunify children still separated from their parents during Trump’s term. He has restarted a sensible program that allows migrant parents who are here legally to apply to bring their children here, too. Strategically, opening more shelters and activating FEMA are also smart moves. I’m not really sure what progressives would have him do — you can’t just release unaccompanied kids into the U.S. interior with no processing and no plan, you can’t keep them in Border Patrol’s custody, and I don’t think anyone wants children to be sent back to Mexico or their home countries alone.

However loathe the left is to admit it, the truth is our asylum program is out of control and needs serious reform. 

As a Jew, I certainly respect its origins: it was created in large part as a moral response after America refused asylum to my ancestors while they were being annihilated by the Nazis in Europe. The intent was to create a safe haven for victims of political, religious and ethnic discrimination. But, as Fareed Zakaria put it, the sad reality is that “the vast majority of people entering the southern border are really traditional migrants, fleeing poverty and violence.”

Amidst all the cruel and inhumane policies orchestrated by Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy was one of the most practical immigration measures he took. The deal was delivered with the same threats and divisive undertones that much of Trump’s posture toward Mexico and migrants had — but it was good policy.

It allowed us more time to process migrants, created disincentives for those who didn’t think their asylum cases would hold up in front of a judge, and eased the burden on our facilities and border patrol agents. It exempted unaccompanied minors, created partnerships with countries across South America to return those who didn’t qualify, brought more judges and immigration processing to the border, and even allowed the U.S. to send some Honduran and Salvadoran migrants to Guatemala as an alternative.

Biden’s decision to undo it was a mistake — and it’s part of what’s costing him dearly now. Of course, we saw a similar border surge in 2019 and again toward the end of Trump’s presidency, a reminder that the remain in Mexico policy alone, and Trump’s immigration posture more broadly, were not the answers.

Since Bill Clinton, every president has been largely stymied by the dynamics of our southern border. Once again, we need actual, comprehensive immigration reform. I’ve said here before I support a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants already here — an empathetic, economically sound and long-term fix for many of our problems.

We need more judges to process more asylum cases more quickly, and we need reforms that make it clear the system is not a wide-open door. We need to return to some of the policies of the Trump administration to coordinate better with Mexico and our Central American neighbors. But we also need to continue to resist draconian, inhumane policies that harm innocent men, women and children. 

And we need to remember why people are trying to come here in the first place, literally risking life and limb, handing over their life savings to a smuggler or risking separation from their families, often walking days or weeks through some of the most treacherous terrain on the planet: They want a better life. They want opportunities to work. They want safety. These wishes aren’t crimes, they’re purely human, and we need to remember that central reality whatever chance we get.

a policy called Title 42 to expedite deportations as a public health policy related to coronavirus. The Biden administration exempted teens and children from that policy, meaning they no longer face the threat of immediate deportation.

The left and right have reacted to the news by attacking Biden’s policies from two different angles and calling both for reforms and for a return to some of the Trump-era policies.