Border Crisis?

Orangeman heard some story on FOX and is now ordering the deployment of the National Guard to help with border security. He's even blaming NAFTA for the current "crisis".

Ironically, Noam Chomsky wrote about this years ago.

Mexican economist Carlos Salas reviews data showing that after a steady rise until 1993, agricultural employment began to decline when NAFTA came into force, primarily among corn producers — a direct consequence of NAFTA, he and other economists conclude. One-sixth of the Mexican agricultural work force has been displaced in the NAFTA years, a process that is continuing, depressing wages in other sectors of the economy and impelling emigration to the United States.

It is, presumably, more than coincidental that President Clinton militarised the Mexican border, previously quite open, in 1994, along with implementation of NAFTA.

Chomsky notes that Mexico suffers more from the agreement than the U.S.

The “free trade” regime drives Mexico from self-sufficiency in food towards dependency on US exports.

Tamara Pearson reports on how the traditional Mexican diet is being replaced by American junk food.

This Coca-Cola and mass-junk food distribution was facilitated by NAFTA, an agreement that came into effect in 1994. It allows the U.S. to send its junk food here, while the U.S. imports tomatoes, chilies, cucumbers, limes, avocados, mangoes, and more from Mexico. In the 1990s, NAFTA meant that Mexican family farms couldn't compete with the U.S. agricultural giants, and five million Mexican farmers were displaced into the cities. It was a forced conversion of sorts, where U.S. fast food restaurants and corporations that specialize in selling cheap poison in pretty packets were given even more room to take Mexican resources and run the show.

If this is a crisis, could it be we brought it on ourselves?

Update (May 13):  Sophia Tesfaye writes that with 24/7 attention on Dear Leader's criminal activities, Jeff Sessions has cover to work his evil.

Out of the spotlight, obscured by [Fuckface's] other sidekicks and their latest scandals, Sessions has succeeded in centering immigration as the nation’s top law enforcement priority and at prioritizing criminal proceedings over their impact on crime. He’s quietly instructed prosecutors to go after low-level offenders and removed Department of Justice grants to study criminal justice reform. If his increasingly aggressive rhetoric is any indication, however, Sessions is eager to get credit for this crackdown on the most vulnerable people in our society.

Update (June 8):  Heather Digby Parton explains how cruel U.S. immigration policy has become.

The whole point of this is to make examples of these mothers and children and to deter asylum-seekers from even attempting to come here. And this is in spite of both domestic and international laws governing the rights of refugees. Apparently, those laws are no longer operative in the United States.

Update (June 15):  Over six weeks this spring, nearly 50 children per day were separated from their families at the U.S. border. Alicia Menendez forcefully criticizes this disgraceful policy.

I think it's just so important that we remember that this does not require legislation to be fixed. This could be handled by DHS by reversing this policy. And it is a crisis of America's own invention. It is taxing a system that was never meant to handle this type of overflow of children.

Update (June 18):  The DHS Secretary says "We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period." Roque Planas explains that

DHS policy ... is to refer 100 percent of illegal border crossings for criminal prosecution ― a step that previous administrations had refused to take. The logic undergirding Nielsen’s contention is that family separation is not the goal; attaining a 100 percent rate of prosecution for immigration violations is.

But von Clownstick continues to blame Democrats who have no power in Congress. Senator Lindsay Graham says Fuckface could stop it with a phone call. Even Laura Bush (not to mention Amnesty International) is critical of the administration's tactics.

I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart.

Planas refutes all the excuses made for why this is happening.

The only charitable explanation for systematically peddling these falsehoods is that the officials charged with carrying out this policy, along with prominent Republicans who don’t want to share the blame for it, simply have no idea what they’ve done.

But the simplest answer is the most plausible: ... Republicans seeking to deflect the blame over family separations at the border know exactly what they’re doing, and they know it’s unpopular. And to shield themselves, they’ve resorted to flagrant dishonesty and cast themselves as victims of the press.

Update (June 19):  Amanda Marcotte points out that most Republicans support the separation policy even while moral human beings do not. So, there's a lot of field-testing with various lies.

What [Fuckface] needs, in order to get even stronger Republican support behind him, is a story -- a narrative that allows voters to support this inhumane policy while maintaining the claim that they aren't bad people for doing so. The story doesn't have to make much sense or have any basis in truth. It just needs to be something supporters can roll out to sound halfway rational if challenged by friends or relatives about their support for this policy.

Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers recall the issues that drive migration in the first place.

Immigration ... is tied into issues of corporate trade agreements, regime change, US Empire, the drug war and capitalism. These issues are forcing a race to the bottom for worker rights and wages and destruction of the environment. They are driving a growing security state, militarization of law enforcement and mass incarceration. Border patrols lock people into countries where they face poverty, pollution and violence with little chance of escape.

Immigrants are the scapegoats, but it is the systems that are driving migration. Most people would prefer to remain in their home countries where they have roots, family and communities. Extreme conditions drive people to abandon everything and endure harsh and dangerous travel in hope of finding safety and the means of survival.

And Heather Digby Parton notes Laura Ingraham's fear that immigration will change "the electoral and cultural landscape of the United States forever". Conservatives feel threatened.

The nativism we are seeing play out right now is cruel and inhumane. It's born of an ugly strain of white nationalism that forms the core of the Republican Party under [von Clownstick]. But the conservative movement is still working feverishly on their own projects, using [Fuckface] and his demagoguery to serve their long-term goals. They know that keeping Latinos from voting and shutting down immigration, both legal and illegal, is necessary to their political survival as a movement and a party.

Update (June 20):  Parton suggests it's all about the wall.

He is holding all those kids at the border for ransom.

And if modern conservative politics is mostly about making liberals cry, then torturing children certainly does the trick.

And just like that, problem solved!

Lock up immigrant parents and their children together, indefinitely.

Oops.

But there’s no evidence that [Dear Leader] has the legal authority to make his wish reality. His plan, issued in an executive order on Wednesday, conflicts with a 2015 court ruling that required the government to release child migrants from detention after 20 days. [Fuckface] can’t dismiss federal judges’ rulings by decree. So his executive order will trigger a massive showdown between his administration and human rights activists in court.

The Young Turks views the executive order as pretty much a cave by von Clownstick, but also argue that the ultimate goal is to greatly curtail even legal immigration by enacting multiple restrictions. More non-white voters is bad news for Republicans.

Update (June 21):  Kenn Orphan dismisses justifications of the treatment of refugees based on the "rule of law".

Such a rationale only exists in the minds of those whose humanity has long been gutted. It’s one that has been used generously by scoundrels throughout time to ignore their complicity in creating the turmoil in the first place, and then defending the cruelest of policies against the human beings affected by that misery.

Heather Digby Parton points out that illegal border crossings are at a 46 year low. She quotes Chris Hayes:

Before [the zero-tolerance] policy roughly 90% of prosecutions in McAllen federal court were of detained immigrants with criminal records. Since the new policy it’s flipped!

90% of those being prosecuted have no record and are facing misdemeanor charges for first time entry.

Parton explains that these refugees "are far more afraid of what they've left behind them than what lies ahead" which is why this intent on deterrence gets so dangerous. Hayes again:

What that ends up being is you get into a kind of bidding war with the cartels about who can be more monstrous. . . . You end up having to do monstrous things so that the judgment tips in your favor.

Update (June 22):  It's a good thing we have a successful businessman in charge.

[Von Clownstick] has created a crisis involving three separate federal departments while clashing with the two other branches of government. The administration hasn't even been able to keep its communications staffers and agency heads on the same page, so there's likely to be even more misinterpretations up and down the chain of command than those we're seeing play out in the press.

In short, it's not clear there is any concerted effort to clean up the disaster that has already occurred, and there's no consensus within the government about how to keep the disaster from getting worse.

Parton isn't surprised.

He is just as incompetent today as he was the day after his inauguration, when he sent out Sean Spicer in an ill-fitting suit to defend his preposterous claim that his inauguration crowd was bigger than Obama's. In fact, he has actually gotten worse at the job instead of better.

Update (June 24):  "Misstatements" in this administration can't ever be corrected (Germany's crime rate is up due to immigrants) because that would undermine the justification for their policies. Andrew O'Hehir argues it doesn't matter whether von Clownstick believes everything he says or knowingly lies.

[Dear Leader] airs out his outrageous statements and “believes” them for a while — insofar as he believes anything — as long as the adulation keeps on pouring in from his fans, who also “believe” them. Then he discards them without a moment’s thought when they stop working.

The dangerous part is the foundational lie O'Hehir says has been consistent and coherent throughout Fuckface's career.

America is under assault from black and brown savages who want to destroy our culture and ravage our women; only one man, if given unlimited power, can stop them.

Update (June 27):  A U.S. District Court judge has ordered that the children separated from their parents due to the "zero-tolerance" policy be reunited with their families within 30 days.

Update (June 30):  Hundreds of demonstrations against Fuckface immigration policy.

Update (July 6):  Dawn Stover suggests the increase in asylum applications from Central America are due in part to drought and crop losses. These are tied to more frequent El Nino events which are tied to climate change. It's not hard to imagine increasing numbers of climate refugees which will exacerbate conflicts over immigration.

Update (July 15):  Jane Regan wants to restore context to reportage about immigration.

In today’s world, with its borders and customs agents and walls and razor wire, freedom of movement has become detached from the rest of the liberal philosophy that underpinned our revolutionary generation. Why not give those in the Americas who were born—as Jefferson put it—into a country which “chance, not choice, has placed them” the opportunity to go “in quest of new habitations”? Perhaps resurrecting freedom of movement as a “natural right” would at least partly make up for the centuries of pillage and invasion.

Update (July 22):  Molly Redden reminds us that many refugees are fleeing violence prompted by U.S. foreign policy.

For many decades, but particularly in the 1980s, the United States funneled billions of dollars in military aid to authoritarian Central American governments with the stated goal of combating communism. The funding, equipment and training transformed civil wars in Guatemala and El Salvador into conflicts of exceptional brutality.

Update (August 10):  Heather Digby Parton explains how the Right, lead by Laura Ingraham, really really hate all immigrants. Unless they're the First Lady's parents.

Update (October 23):  Republicans are trying stir up fear over a "caravan" of refugees heading up toward the U.S. from Central America. But this is how one independent voter on FOX responded to the "crisis":

This is the mightiest country on the planet, I think we can handle a caravan of people, unarmed, coming to this country.

I'm saying to process them properly.

Update (November 26):  Refugees seeking asylum found a closed port of entry this weekend. So who's really breaking the law here?

[Dear Leader] authorized shooting tear gas late Sunday afternoon from the U.S. border into Mexico against hundreds of migrants, including pregnant women, and children in diapers.

Update (December 4):  Todd Miller explains that most refugees from Central America are fleeing drought. Of course, the most anti-immigrant people in the U.S. are also likely to be climate change deniers as well.

Update (December 10):  I guess this is what "fair and balanced" looks like:

Prime-time Fox News programs used the words "invasion" or "invaders" to describe migrants and asylum-seekers more times in the 30 days leading up to the Nov. 6 election than they did during all of 2015, 2016 and 2017 combined.

Update (December 14):  Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen responds to the death of a seven-year-old Guatemalan girl from dehydration while in U.S. custody.

You know, this is just a very sad example of the dangers of this journey. This family chose to cross illegally.

Update (December 25):  An eight-year-old Guatemalan boy has died while in U.S. custody.

Update (December 26):  Kirstjen Nielsen doubles down.

Our system has been pushed to a breaking point by those who seek open borders. Smugglers, traffickers, and their own parents put these minors at risk by embarking on the dangerous and arduous journey north.

Update (January 8, 2019):  Yeah, we all make mistakes. Or lie through our teeth.

The ... administration has claimed that U.S. border officials detained "nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists" last year at the Mexican border. But figures from the federal government’s Department of Customs and Border Protection reveal that only six people on a security watchlist were detained over a six-month period, NBC reports.

A real national emergency.

Update (February 5, 2019):  There might have been thousands more family separations at the border in 2017 and the administration says it would take too much effort to reunite them.

Update (February 6, 2019):  Oops--this quote shows that Fuckface my have forgotten his base doesn't like any kind of immigrant.

Legal immigrants enrich our nation and strengthen our society in countless ways. I want people to come into our country in the largest numbers ever, but they have to come in legally.

Update (February 11, 2019):  Fuckface spews more immigration lies.

Gallup Poll: "Open Borders will potentially attract 42 million Latin Americans." This would be a disaster for the U.S. We need the Wall now!

Heather Digby Parton breaks it down:  No one calls for open borders. It's a disaster only if you believe all of Latin American is a "shithole". The number comes from a blog post by the Gallup chairman--of 450 million Latin Americans, 27 percent would like to move to another country and 35 percent would like to go to the U.S. But many in the United States would like to immigrate themselves yet few actually do.

People say they'd like to move to another country all the time. It doesn't mean they're likely to do it. In the case of the migrant "caravans," we have a humanitarian crisis in Central America that's driving people to seek asylum in the U.S. The vast majority of them are just seeking safety and some kind of security. They certainly aren't coming here for the warm welcome and generous hospitality.

Update (May 22, 2019):  You'd think this alone would be enough grounds for impeachment.

A 16-year-old migrant boy was found dead Monday after being taken into Border Patrol custody, making him the fifth minor since December to die shortly after being detained in a government processing facility. Given the arduous journey many children take to get to the U.S. and the unsanitary conditions in Border Patrol centers, medical experts and immigrant rights advocates warn these deaths are likely to continue.

Update (June 5, 2019):  Border apprehensions are up--does this mean there is a crisis?

May was the third month in a row that border detentions topped 100,000, led by record-breaking levels of illegal crossings by Guatemalan and Honduran parents bringing children.

But does Fuckface know how to handle it?

[T]ariffs are supposed to force Mexico to interdict more people before the cross the border into America, but that’s only the latest desperate move from the White House. So far, all attempts to deter people from making the effort have had no effect.

Update (June 10, 2019):  Amanda Marcotte explains just how stupid Dear Leader is.

[His] assumption that illegal immigration from Mexico is a significant issue, which like most of his ideas was forged in the 1980s, is flatly false. In fact, there's been a dramatic decline both in undocumented immigrants and Mexicans illegally crossing the border. Instead, the pressing immigration issue right now is that large numbers of Central Americans are seeking political asylum in the U.S., as is their right under international law.

Predictably unwilling to admit he was wrong, [Fuckface] has been desperately trying to find a way to blame Mexico anyway. So he landed on this idea of holding Mexico responsible for Central American immigrants, employing the super-racist logic that Mexico, a Spanish-speaking country, has more responsibility to deal with Central Americans than the U.S. does. So, in one of his racist bro-downs with [Stephen] Miller, he came up with this idea of "punishing" Mexico for immigrants who aren't actually from Mexico.

Update (June 23, 2019):  While Chuck Todd professes shock at the use of the words "concentration camps" by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, there seems to be no equivalent outrage over Dear Leader's (now delayed) plan to deport "millions" of immigrants. Cody Fenwick notes:

It’s not close to feasible that [Fuckface] will be able to achieve that scale of arrests, of course, but part of the purpose seems to be to terrify the immigrant population, so exaggeration is a feature, not a bug.

Update (July 1, 2019):  His publisher says Michael de Adder was not fired for this cartoon.

He should be ashamed of himself for being so rude!

Members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant.

Representative Judy Chu:

What we saw was appalling and disgusting.

Update (July 3, 2019):  A crisis of our own making.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General found "dangerous overcrowding," prolonged detention and health risks to migrants at multiple Border Patrol facilities in South Texas, according to a report the agency watchdog released Tuesday.

One official at a Border Patrol facility told investigators that the migrant crisis is a "ticking time bomb."