What’s Really Happening at the Border?

March 29, 2021 ☼ migration

Source: The Atlantic - Link

But for decades, most immigration experts have viewed border crossings not in terms of surges, but in terms of cycles that are affected by an array of factors. These include the cartels’ trafficking business, weather, and religious holidays as well as American politics—but perhaps most of all by conditions in the childrens’ home countries. A 2014 Congressional Research Service report found that young peoples’ “motives for migrating to the United States are often multifaceted and difficult to measure analytically,” and that “while the impacts of actual and perceived U.S. immigration policies have been widely debated, it remains unclear if, and how, specific immigration policies have motivated children to migrate to the United States.”

I would not be surprised to see this “surge” abate in a month or two. There are many contributing factors:

  1. the collapsing economies and gang warfare of Central America

  2. Trump’s artificial and cruel suppression

  3. the seasonal migration

  4. Coyotes whispering that “now is the time”.

Of these only (1) is long-term.

Immigrants are our strength. They have always been our strength.

Human migration is inevitable. It has always been inevitable. Borders are both necessary and a legal fiction.