The so-called migrant caravan that’s slowly making its way to the U.S. from Central America is many things to many people. But one thing seems pretty certain: it’s not about seeking “asylum,” or “refugee status.” It’s about getting to the United States at all costs.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Sunday was blunt. She said the caravan wending its way through Mexico to the U.S. is “not getting in.”
“There a legal way to get into this country,” she told Fox New Sunday. “Those who choose to enter illegally will be stopped.”
Even so, thousands continue on their way. They know from their fellow Central Americans or from their own experience that the U.S. is notoriously lax about its border controls. It does next to nothing once you get here. Even those who are caught entering illegally get a legal slap on the wrist and an order to return to court for a deportation hearing. The vast majority never show up. We do nothing.
Americans are, perhaps understandably, squeamish about all this. After all, what other nation has ever described itself as a “nation of immigrants” with such obvious pride? To push back a group of thousands who seek come here doesn’t feel right for some.
But it should.
Caravan Of Chaos
First is the ineluctable fact that a country that doesn’t protect its borders isn’t a country at all. We’ve said this many times before, but it bears repeating. Countries that can’t defend borders cease to exist, at least in any meaningful sense.
Second, the people coming here are being abetted by outside money and aid to create an embarrassing spectacle on our border right as our midterm elections hit. Can there really be any other reason for the timing of this mass migration?
Writing for PJMedia, Rick Moran notes that “only about 1,700 of the estimated 7,000 Central American refugees in the caravan heading to the U.S. border have accepted an offer from the Mexican government for asylum.”
The offer shows Mexico is at least trying to help the U.S. to end this political travesty. Not only did Mexico’s government offer the migrants asylum in a country that speaks their language. It also offered them a host of benefits, including temporary ID cards, work permits, medical care, schooling and local housing. Only 23% took them up.
No, as repeated comments from caravan participants show, the U.S. is the promised land. It has more jobs, bigger welfare checks, and massive illegal communities just waiting to welcome the newcomers. The idea that this is about leaving political repression and gang violence doesn’t wash.
Foreign Help
So why do they keep going on their arduous trip? Obviously, they’re being aided. Vice President Pence said that Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernandez told him that the caravan had been “organized by leftist organizations and financed by Venezuela.”
Meanwhile, the U.N. is committing resources to the caravan. In essence, it uses U.S. taxpayers’ money to fund a violation of their own border. That way, the U.S. can join all the other countries with a mass immigration problem.
As the UN News service reported, “A priority for UNHCR (the UN’s refugee agency), which has mobilized extra staff and resources to help . Those making the journey in Mexico’s southern borderlands, is ensuring migrants are informed on their rights to asylum. In an agency video, a UNHCR protection associate said many migrants were simply unaware asylum was an option.”
In other words, the U.N. has set up shop in Mexico and is pushing these migrants to go to the U.S. Once again, the U.N. violates a member nation’s right to protect its own borders. Fortunately, President Trump is having none of it. He’ll send 5,200 troops to the border to stop the influx.
For those who have suggested Trump’s move is illegal under the “Posse Comitatus” Act of 1878, they’re wrong. That law’s letter and intent was to keep the U.S. from using federal military troops against its own citizens. No one intended for this law to force our borders open to those who would violate our sovereignty.
Media’s Misleading Narrative
By the way, the media’s non-stop focus on the families with children, while some of their stories are heartbreaking, is deceptive. As photos of the march clearly show, the bulk of the “asylum seekers” are young, working-age men. They’re not seeking “asylum.” They’re seeking jobs. And an unknown number are criminals, including murderous MS-13 thugs.
@Deplorable Me:
My dad came here a year or two before my mom. She was here about two years before she became pregnant with me. You might have read my comment earlier about me being a surprise pregnancy.
Maybe I should mention that my dad was mad when he found out my mom was pregnant with me, since his plan was for the two of them to work, save money, and go back to Mexico.
My younger sister was born 2 years later.
@Jenny: Many come here pregnant with the knowledge that once the baby is born (funded by the taxpayers) they all get to stay. Maybe you can see the problem for the taxpayer and nation with this exploitation. Maybe not.
@Deplorable Me:
A report from a reporter on the Tijuana beat:
“Just the prospect of the arrival of large numbers of Central Americans already has fueled opposition of some Tijuana residents. A Facebook group, Tijuana en Contra de la Caravana Migrante (Tijuana Against the Migrant Caravan) — counted more than 1,000 members. It calls for deportation of caravan members without legal status in Mexico, a measure necessary “to avoid their causing a collapse of our region.”
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/border-baja-california/sd-me-caravan-tijuana-20181112-story.html
Even the Mexicans don’t want these people in their nation. Then there is this (the truth about the caravan)
Not one of the people interviewed mentioned “persecution” as a reason for leaving their homeland.
It’s all a scam being perpetrated by those who support open borders (by group that has been, in the past, funded by George Soros). Vicente Fox, former president of Mexico, once said his people have a right to go wherever they want even if another nation considers their entry illegal.
@retire05:
No, Mexico lets them in just to pass through… like a turd. Let’s watch when the military constipates Mexico with the caravan they hoped to digest and move on through. They’ll watch their diet more carefully from now on.
1,954 miles of physical wall is a political boondoggle at taxpayer expense.
It definitely goes against their concern about taxpayer costs.
I’m pretty sure illegal immigrants could find their way under or over the wall, rendering it a useless feature that threatens endangered wildlife.
@Jenny: The border wall will save hundreds of billions of dollars EVERY YEAR. The prototypes of the wall show that those concerns have been addressed.
@Deplorable Me: I’m not convinced.
@Jenny: Well, you want our borders open and vulnerable to invasion, so your opinion is suspect.
@Deplorable Me: That’s not true. I just don’t think a wall is enough to keep illegal immigrants out.
@Jenny: You might want to see what the Israelis have to say about that.