Protestors have clashed in the Mexican city of Tijuana as both sides, pro-migrant and anti-migrant, fight to establish their support/opposition on the issue. The popular modern issue of immigration has been sparked recently with news of a migrant caravan of central Americans that are traveling from Mexico into the US. Both Mexico and the US have upgraded their border security to be heavier. The number of migrants is expected to rise to 10,000. The caravan has reportedly been stopped in Tijuana, right in front of the US-Mexico border. City officials in Tijuana are scrambling to try to provide for these immigrants who are simply searching for asylum. They have set up shelter, but it is barely enough for the growing number of migrants who wish to live on American soil. In response, quite expectedly, Donald Trump has threatened to arrest and not release anyone who tries to illegally enter the country. I personally believe that there should just be a simpler solution to becoming a citizen or getting a green card. If that were done then people wouldn't need to illegally immigrate to the states. And since president trump hold the US as the ultimate police of the world, perhaps he should try to help the countries that these immigrants are running away from.
What are some solutions to illegal immigration?
How should the caravan be provided for?
Did President Trump react the right way? If not, how should he have?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46256878
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/18/world/americas/mexico-tijuana-migrants-caravan.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYnV5lV2xOQ
6 comments:
Response to question -- solutions to illegal immigration:
Illegal immigration is a complex issue that can be tackled from many different angles. 1). We can try to physically bar illegal immigrants from entering the United States. The Trump administration currently proposes that we build a wall, but this solution is costly and may be limited in effectiveness. 2) Limit the issuing of visas to reduce "chain migration" and overstayed visas. Immigrants on visas can upgrade to green cards (permanent residency) and eventually citizenship, and the relatives of citizens get priority to enter the US. The Trump administration is attempting to do this right now as well. 3) The Trump administration is also trying to pay Mexico to deter illegal immigrants there. A New York Times article published Sept 12 stated that the administration intended to allocate 20 million in foreign assistance funds to "to help Mexico pay plane and bus fare to deport as many as 17,000 people who are in that country illegally." (NYtimes)
I've linked a pretty cool New York Times article that compares US immigration policies to other countries':
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/16/upshot/comparing-immigration-policies-across-countries.html?mtrref=www.google.com
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/how-trump-is-changing-the-face-of-legal-immigration/2018/07/02/477c78b2-65da-11e8-99d2-0d678ec08c2f_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.da003b89117e
Illegal immigration is a complex issue, so, naturally, this administration has and is will make blunders with it. There is a somewhat valid line of action in trying to get Mexico to accept the asylum seekers, and trying to make them enter the U.S. legally, however.
Immigration, even undocumented, is a generally good thing, but the claim that these people are immigrating for asylum is somewhat undercut by the fact that they're already in a safe(ish) country of mexico, so it would make sense to consider them as economic migrants like most others, and process them in much the same ways.
I believe "expectedly" is the correct term for Trumps response to this problem because the approaching caravan will, in my opinion, not make any difference in the way that the Trump administration is already dealing with illegal immigrants: they will attempt to turn them away and enter the vetting program as any other immigrant would. Actually it would seem like the large amount of immigrants may prove more harmful for the caravan themselves as they will be much easier to detain than small groups all along the border. Understandably the issue is complex so the caravan will most definitely present some problems and the idea that mexico should take some initiative in accepting the people seeking asylum is a rather decent idea. I think this caravan, if nothing else, will push the immigration problem directly into the administrations face and it should be interesting to see what will happen.
I think in order to make immigration better, the qualifications to apply and get a green card, which is the start of the naturalization process to become a US citizen, needs to be toned down a bit. Thee requirements are just simply to difficult for many to fall into which cause many to try and illegally immigrate. However I think that the current administration will not do anything to fix the process as we have seen numerous examples of his strictness on immigration but perhaps maybe in the future the requirement to start the naturalization process will be if you are seeking refuge. This way it will deal with future caravan type problems and ultimately save the lives of many!
Looking ahead, we must come to a stronger consensus to either provide safety to refugees who were dealt a bad hand or discourage illegal immigration to be fair to those who worked hard and sacrificed a lot in order to come into the country legally. This is a tough question to answer, as it means either sacrificing empathy or consistency, but we nevertheless must decide, as the country's reluctance to take a unified and definite stance on immigration is part of what has made the migrant caravan so difficult to deal with for the government. If the frustrating process of handling the migrant caravan isn't convincing enough for us to be more decisive on immigration, I don't know what is.
The situation with illegal immigration is incredibly frustrating in the US. Many come to the US because of dangerous and sometimes lethal situations back home. But coming to this country illegally is clearly breaking the law. However, coming to the US on a green card is strangely much more difficult
when you are Latino.
This puts the immigrants in a horrible spot, with no place to go back to and no country to go to.
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