Surprise — the Trump administration’s assessment of the current immigration situation of the United States has little to do with reality. This past week, showing just how vulnerable their idea of a border wall as a cure for all ailments is, the largest single group of migrants ever recorded coming into the United States crossed the border under some border barrier that’s already up. Seven tunnels were dug underneath the roughly twelve-foot tall fence in the San Luis, Arizona, area, and after the 376 people made it through, they turned themselves in to authorities in order to begin the process of seeking asylum in the United States.
The Trump administration is currently holding one-fourth of the government hostage over their demands for border wall funding that Congress will not agree to, leaving that portion of the government closed over lack of funding.
To suggest, however, that a border wall would solve the supposed crisis at the southern border is extremely short-sighted. Just look at what’s actually happening there. Although a wall that’s larger than what the hundreds of migrants overcame this past Monday in Arizona would certainly dampen efforts to cross the border, to suggest it would completely stop those determined to enter the country is ludicrous.
The reality of the situation is that as Trump cries about a supposed invasion, many thousands of asylum seekers fleeing violence continue to arrive at the southern border. Lately, those seeking asylum have been some of the most vulnerable, including 179 children in the group apprehended this Monday, including over 30 unaccompanied minors. Overall, parents with children are about 80 percent of those taken into custody along the United States’ border with Mexico.
These individuals are not a threat, as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) insisted in their recent response to Trump’s Oval Office speech stumping for the wall (and shutdown). In reality, their situation involves a real humanitarian crisis. Just this week, the inspector general overseeing the Department of Health and Human Services revealed that thousands more undocumented immigrant children than previously estimated had been separated from their parents over a period including before the Trump administration formally implemented their zero tolerance policy that sparked the most high profile family separations.
Customs and Border Patrol’s Yuma Border Sector Chief Anthony Porvaznik called the humanitarian aspect to the situation the “number one challenge that we have here in the Yuma sector,” since abut 87 percent of the undocumented immigrants apprehended in the area are “family units and unaccompanied alien children.”
Trump has been shown the error his ways. During a televised roundtable discussion on border security he participated in recently, a McAllen, Texas, area CBP agent showed him photographic evidence of tunneling under physical border demarcations that are already in place.
He’s still pushing for a wall to fix the humanitarian issue-plagued immigration system anyway, though. It’s like amputating your leg if you get a cut, or removing entire organs if you get a stomach ache. Walling off an entire population will not solve the actual immigration issues the United States faces.
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
