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Crisis? What Crisis?
Author: BobR
Date: 03/24/2021 13:03:45
To hear the news pundits tell it, as soon as President Biden took office, there suddenly magically was a crisis occurring at the border. You'd expect that from FOX "News" (neither fair nor balanced), where their relationship with the truth is tenuous at best.
But even REAL news outlets, are using the same phrase "crisis" to describe what is happening there. ABC News titles their article "U.S. trying to dissuade migrant travel to ease growing border crisis". The NY Post says "VP Harris appears to blame Trump administration for border crisis".
Republican Rep Madison Cawthorn (R-SC) (yes, that's his real name), has even made the outrageous claim that
This is in reference to a federal contract to house some migrant families, rather than PUT THE KIDS IN CAGES AND EJECT THEIR PARENTS. The claim by Cawthorn is not true, FWIW, because the current budget - which Cawthorn voted against - contains more than two billion dollars to address homeless veterans.
Besides keeping families together, the Biden administration is requesting that unaccompanied migrant children be housed at a couple military bases until a permanent home can be found
Reminder: the border facility used by the ex-administration to split up families and warehouse kids was put in place to temporarily house unaccompanied children. That was a distinction ignored by Republicans when they said "Obama did it too". Biden is trying to repair that crime against humanity by allowing families to reunite with their kids in the U.S.. As of the end of February, 112 families had been reunited.
What with all the misleading and downright false claims being tossed around, the Washington Post dispenses with alarmism, and goes with research and data (remember when news organizations used to do that?). They build a very solid case for why this is not a crisis:
(much more at link)
Why would it be cyclical though? The answer to that is on your dinner table. Migrants cross the border (many "illegally") to work on farms during the harvest season, and then return home for the winter. The xenophobic harsh enforcement of immigration laws at our southern border has created a labor crisis for our farmers for the last several years. It's possible to get farm labor via the H-2A program, but it's not currently a viable solution:
Let's also dispense with the old trope that immigrants are taking jobs from Americans. At one point (about 100 years ago), most farm labor was performed by transients moving from one farm to another to harvest. They got fed up with poor working conditions and poor pay, and slowly it became one of those "jobs Americans just don't want to do". With temp farm labor paying around $15/hr in California, it's hard to get anyone - even illegal immigrants - to hire.
It's way past time for immigration reform. It makes sense for economic and humanitarian reasons. We spend so much money on manpower, technology, and infrastructure to keep a needed workforce from entering the country. This should be replaced with an easy and efficient system for matching farmers with workers trying to enter.
This is a "crisis" of our own making.
But even REAL news outlets, are using the same phrase "crisis" to describe what is happening there. ABC News titles their article "U.S. trying to dissuade migrant travel to ease growing border crisis". The NY Post says "VP Harris appears to blame Trump administration for border crisis".
Republican Rep Madison Cawthorn (R-SC) (yes, that's his real name), has even made the outrageous claim that
"The Biden Admin just dropped $86 Million dollars to get hotel rooms for ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS yet we have zero dollars going to our homeless veterans who are at a high risk of suicide. UNACCEPTABLE. UNAMERICAN".
Besides keeping families together, the Biden administration is requesting that unaccompanied migrant children be housed at a couple military bases until a permanent home can be found
Reminder: the border facility used by the ex-administration to split up families and warehouse kids was put in place to temporarily house unaccompanied children. That was a distinction ignored by Republicans when they said "Obama did it too". Biden is trying to repair that crime against humanity by allowing families to reunite with their kids in the U.S.. As of the end of February, 112 families had been reunited.
What with all the misleading and downright false claims being tossed around, the Washington Post dispenses with alarmism, and goes with research and data (remember when news organizations used to do that?). They build a very solid case for why this is not a crisis:
In the figure below, we combine data from fiscal year 2012 to fiscal year 2020 to show the cumulative total number of apprehensions for each month over these eight years. As you can see, migrants start coming when winter ends and the weather gets a bit warmer. We see a regular increase not just from January to February, but from February to March, March to April, and April to May — and then a sharp drop-off, as migrants stop coming in the hotter summer months when the desert is deadly. That means we should expect decreases from May to June and June to July.
(much more at link)
Why would it be cyclical though? The answer to that is on your dinner table. Migrants cross the border (many "illegally") to work on farms during the harvest season, and then return home for the winter. The xenophobic harsh enforcement of immigration laws at our southern border has created a labor crisis for our farmers for the last several years. It's possible to get farm labor via the H-2A program, but it's not currently a viable solution:
... why don’t more farmers use the H-2A program? It’s expensive and inefficient.
[...]
H-2A requires farmers to pay above-market wages on top of providing free housing and transportation to and from the farm. At that rate, it’s difficult for a farmer to make ends meet.
Then there are the delays farmers often experience in getting workers. If it takes too long to process an H-2A application or if the farmer makes the slightest mistake on the paperwork, workers might not arrive in time—and every day of delay matters when crops are ripe.
Finally, H-2A is a seasonal worker program, giving year-round producers almost no options.
Let's also dispense with the old trope that immigrants are taking jobs from Americans. At one point (about 100 years ago), most farm labor was performed by transients moving from one farm to another to harvest. They got fed up with poor working conditions and poor pay, and slowly it became one of those "jobs Americans just don't want to do". With temp farm labor paying around $15/hr in California, it's hard to get anyone - even illegal immigrants - to hire.
It's way past time for immigration reform. It makes sense for economic and humanitarian reasons. We spend so much money on manpower, technology, and infrastructure to keep a needed workforce from entering the country. This should be replaced with an easy and efficient system for matching farmers with workers trying to enter.
This is a "crisis" of our own making.
