Post
by GreenGoo » Fri Apr 12, 2019 8:08 am
You would think Fox news would have it's hands full if more than 1 caravan filled with rapists, drug mules and murderers was arriving at the border every day.
My point isn't that there isn't a lot of people at the southern border, nor that they aren't piling up. It's that it's not unique to this time period or suddenly, a few months later, a crisis where there wasn't one before. 2000 was worse than today, for example. More importantly, tasking a bureaucracy with a monumental task then criminally underfunding it is only a budgetary crisis.
Secondly, while the "crisis" you've identified does have the word "immigration" in it although refugee might be more appropriate, it is not the same "crisis" the GOP are discussing when talking about immigration, nor is it the same one that drumpf is trying to "solve".
To be clear, I'm not dismissing or denying that the volume of refugees at the southern border is a serious challenge and one that needs additional problem solving. You have a LOT of people looking to better their lives and see America as the key. Efficiently handling those trying to start a new life (including turning many away, if they don't qualify) is imperative. Even with (significant) increased border apprehensions, refugee status applications and other demand increases over last year, it's not suddenly a crisis where there wasn't any a few months, or even a few years before.
I guess my problem is with the word crisis, which implies immediate attention or everyone dies sort of emergency. Again, many (most?) refugee families at the border are in crisis, but that's not the crisis being discussed. Too many refugees for a woefully underfunded system is the crisis being discussed. I'm suggesting hiring more judges and processors and border guards, having too few of which have been identified as a problem for years (decades?) now. You're suggesting...what, exactly? That we acknowledge it's a problem? Immigration is a near constant in the news cycle and during election cycles. I think it's acknowledged.
In fairness to Pyperkub, his suggestion would help with processing. The issue I took with it was in the context of walls and tear gas, the issues that both the left and right wing media focus on when discussing immigration at the southern border. That's me being influenced by the media. fair enough, that's on me.
How about this. I'll just get out of the way if you want to use the word crisis. I won't take exception to it even though I feel like it's needlessly rhetorical. It's your border and it is under strain. If you want to call it a crisis, have at it. You did ask if the forum was ready to call it a crisis a few months after it not being a crisis. My answer is no. Others are free to have their own opinion on that.