We've seen floods of immigrants leaving Africa and the Middle East and going to Europe. People are leaving South and Central America and stacking up along the Southern American Border. If these folk had any choice at all to stay home, they would not be trying to flee to America.
Anti Immigrant folk seem to think that holding these folk in camps at the border is a deterrent, but so far that does not seem to be working.
First on CNN: TSA to deploy hundreds, including air marshals, to border - CNNPolitics
It isn working because they know under US law they will be shortly released, and they can disappear into the country, never to be accountable for their breaking US law.
This is an issue that appears to show a clash between being humane, and the huge economic losses entailed by illegal immigration.
It is not.
Hungary has true deterrence at itś border ( or is it the Czech Republic?) they shoot illegal crossers, they have virtually no illegal immigration.
Certainly not very humane, but it works.
So, what exactly is our obligation to people of another country who illegally enter the US ?
Asylum ? Yes, for those whose lives are endangered by government oppression in their home country.
Yet almost 90% of those who illegally cross and claim asylum who go to a hearing are denied, so asylum is not really an issue.
So, we have refined the issue to, what do we owe to illegal economic migrants.
Certainly most come here for greater financial opportunity, but what does that mean ?
Because of our compassion, the free benefits they can get here automatically makes them better off than where they came from. Contrary to what you are being told, they get free healthcare, they cannot be denied treatment for anything if they show up at a hospital ER, and they are never billed. I know of one case where a drunk illegal wandered into the road and was hit by a car, his case cost the hospital over $500,000, which they ultimately no doubt passed on to others.
Most work, and work hard, yet because they are uneducated and unskilled, their pay is not enough to support their families, and they adhere to the traditional family structure, most often wives do not work.
Because of this inability to support their families, they receive things like food stamps and other government benefits. Interestingly, if they work and file income taxes, if their income does not reach a certain level, they not only do not pay the tax, the government gives them a ¨ refund ¨, that they never earned.
So, we are certainly very compassionate toward illegal aliens, who put one foot on US soil.
I live in a border state, and illegals have over run some of our towns and cities.
The corruption in the illegal alien business is well documented, stolen, rented, or bought children from the cartels in Mexico to allow someone to go free after 20 days is rife, the kids are then recycled in Mexico for another illegal claiming sanctuary.
If you actually speak to Border Patrol officers you hear amazing stories of drug smuggling, gun smuggling and disguised gangsters coming across the border.
So, should compassion supersede stopping illegal entry and itś ills, especially the financial impact ?
No. We owe compassion to our own citizens first. The huge losses to illegal immigration , billions of dollars a year ,cannot be sustained by a nation 22 trillion dollars in debt.
The arm of compassion, money,will run out, and there will be no compassion for anyone, even our own people who deserve it.
Our amnesty laws are foolish, though amnesty should continue to be a criteria for entry.
Illegals should be detained till their status hearing, and if that means building more detention facilities where we must house, feed and provide medical care, so be it. This in itself will be a deterrent, the whole object after all is to be held a short time and then be released to disappear into the country. If they know they will have a hearing, and that 85% of them will be removed, they won´t migrate through Mexico, to get a foot on US soil.
Ultimately, the people of a nation are responsible for the government they have. We cannot take in all of the poor in the world, and it is patently unfair to allow people from Central America essentially a free pass, when the poor of, say Africa, are just as important.
The American taxpayer is owed the prudent use of their tax money, since we cannot truly afford billions to illegal aliens, the money should not be spent for that purpose.
If their adjudication finds them not eligible for sanctuary, they should be promptly removed.