Nina Lakhani reports for us today from Texas and asks if there is a crisis on the border?
After four years of racist, chaotic, anti-immigration policies by the Trump administration – as well as growing desperation fueled by the pandemic and extreme climate events, the number of people seeking to enter the US is increasing.
But advocates in the Rio Grande Valley, where undocumented migrants have long relied on cheap farm labor, reject fire-fighting claims that the numbers are overwhelming.
‘Migration goes up and down, that’s the reality of the border. Biden has different values and has given people hope, but there is no border crisis, to say that is political manipulation, “said Ramona Casas, director of the group of migrant advocates Arise. “We need to address the root causes and transform the broken immigration system, not more militarization.”
The current rise began before the Biden election, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) figures.
Jenn Budd, a former senior border patrol agent who became a whistleblower, said: ‘The only crisis at the border is the children the government is trying to deal with, anything else is simply not true and an attempt to play politics, let Biden look. bad and make sure the money keeps flowing to the border security industry. ”
In 2000, a total of 9,220 border patrol agents detained an average of nearly 137,000 undocumented migrants per month at the southern border. In the financial year 2021 to February, the average was just over 76,000 per month, but the number of agents has more than doubled compared to 2000.
Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott deployed state troops and the national guard to the border after claiming without evidence that illegal immigrants were spreading the coronavirus. Abbott’s unfounded Covid claims came shortly after he announced plans to end the state mask mandate and ordered businesses to start at 100% again.
However, illegal or undocumented migrants are not released in the US. The two groups allowed are a number of existing asylum seekers, thanks to the repeal of Trump’s policy of staying in Mexico, and some new arrivals offered at legal gateways, including unaccompanied children and young families, who have been admitted to stay in the country. pending trial on asylum court. In Texas, everyone stays turned around differently, lawyers say.
Read more about Nina Lakhani’s report here: Is there a crisis on the border ?: a look at both sides of the immigration argument