“One Day on the Border: 8,900 Migrants Arrested, and More on the Way” (New York Times, yesterday):
They come from Brazil, Burkina Faso, Uzbekistan, India and dozens of other countries, a moving global village of hundreds of thousands of people crossing the Rio Grande and slipping through gaps in the border wall at a pace of nearly 9,000 people a day, one of the highest rates of unlawful crossings in months.
(“unlawful”? If they claim asylum as soon as they’re in the U.S., isn’t that “lawful”?)
Driven by desperation, families and individuals are pushing across the southern border and past new efforts by the Biden administration to keep migrants waiting until they secure hard-to-get appointments to enter the nation with permission.
They’re not being pulled in by New York and Maskachusetts promising free housing, health care, and food forever, but being driven from someone else.
“If you don’t take risks, you cannot win,” said Daniel Soto, 35, who crossed with his mother on Tuesday after they sold their car, restaurant and house in Lima, Peru, betting their entire fortune of $25,000 on a weeklong journey to the border near Tijuana.
The Newspaper of Truth says that other people are lying…
Many also believe false claims from smugglers and social media that migrants would definitely be able to remain in the United States if they could make it in.
It is absolutely false, in other words, that migrants can remain in the U.S. (except for the 500,000-ish Venezuelans who were recently granted permanent temporary status by a magnanimous Joe Biden). What’s the truth, according to the NYT?
…. others file asylum claims when they face deportation in immigration court, and are allowed to remain in the United States while they wait for their cases to wind through immigration court, a process that can take years. … Some people will not show up for their court proceedings, and continue to live and work in the United States along with millions of other undocumented immigrants. … Some migrants who arrive using the government app are eligible for permission to stay in the country and work for two years, but may still eventually be ordered deported.
“It will work out,” said Diego Santos, a 23-year-old Brazilian who was heading to Philadelphia after being released by border authorities in San Diego. Ahead of him lay the hope of construction work, but also deportation proceedings that he now has to fight. “I’ll do what I can to stay,” he said.
It is false when smugglers say that migrants can “remain” in the U.S. It is true that migrants can “stay” in the U.S., according to the NYT.
Let’s take Mr. Soto, the middle-class Peruvian described above who sold his car, restaurant, and house in order to enjoy the means-tested taxpayer-funded U.S. lifestyle. Suppose that La Migra tries to deport him. What stops him from saying “I am from Venezuela” and, thus, becoming entitled to stay in the U.S. for the rest of his life? If he’s undocumented then the U.S. by definition can’t demand documents from him to prove his Venezuelan origin. If an extremely sophisticated government employee recognizes a Peruvian accent, can’t Mr. Soto say “I am Venezuelan, but spent 10 years as an undocumented immigrant in Peru and picked up a Peruvian accent.”
Separately, note that Peru follows the U.S. state religion. From the government tourism web site, in which the rainbow flag hangs at equal size and height with the national flag of Peru:
(The rainbow flag reminds me to wish everyone a happy Celebrate Bisexuality Day. See also NBC and Planned Parenthood.)
Seems like the answer to your question is: nothing. But, I have personal question: if I identify as Venezuelan, can I skip the long lines at airport immigration when I fly back to the U.S.?
A cousin of mine works at a government facility at the Paris airport for deporting illegals. He mingles with interpreters. He told me that it is extremely easy for them to detect people that lie about their country of origin. Accent, and simple questions about TV shows, celebrities, best soccer team, coaches, local delicacies, names of streets where the markets/bazaars are etc. Obviously it requires government resources: native speakers and time to interview them all.
Deportation is only a theoretical possibility for a European country, not implementable in practice. First, they have no documents. Their country of origin does not accept them without papers. The embassies are reluctant to issue them temporary documents. They have a sort of state policy to make it impossible to accept their citizen back. For several reasons: their economies are in a disastrous state, unemployment is 20-50% and their political systems are autocratic. They fear that an influx of young, unemployed, frustrated males will fuel street demonstrations, chaos, political instability or at least they will be a recruiting ground for the Muslim Brotherhood and other fanatics. So they export their dangerous desperados to Europe to ease the social pressure in their own bankrupt countries. Then there is also an Islamic satisfaction and pride to wreck and bleed the infidel ex-colonizer. The only way to make them comply is the use of personal economic threats and blackmail (as their leaders have bank accounts, investments, children at university, holiday homes, make shopping trips or medical treatments in the infidel’s realm.) But they do blackmail back with oil and gas, and their negotiating hand got heavier since Putin’s gas has become tabù.
Your case, the US’, is easier, I imagine. You depend much less on Mexico and especially on the Central American countries and they cannot blackmail you. You are also militarily stronger and you can just dump planeloads or shiploads of illegals, with or without citizenship proof, on their shores if there were a political will to do that. You could impose sanctions on the governments that do not accept them back happily.
French issue “obligation de quitter le territoire français” (OQTF) within 30 days, but the migrant ignores this, stays with relative, works on black market or similar, and remains well beyond the 30 days granted, not unlike the US problem with hearing dates years out for “asylum seekers.”
The Front National & other conservatives in France cite this murder and the Annecy knife attacks in 2023 (among other cases) as to why deportation needs to be revamped: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Lola_Daviet
Add to that to the huge social welfare costs of these new immigrants, and already Germany, Romania and other EU countries are refusing to go along with edicts from Brussels about their fair “share” of migrants who cross the Mediterranean to reach Italy.
Sending a couple of sons/nephews/etc to Europe or North America is more of a family investment. Some minor risk to their hides but a lot of potential gain for the family.
For example, I just saw that a brave immigrant from Eritrea has welcomed his 150th (sic) family member to Winnipeg. Even so, some still remain back in the old country. Two out of eight brothers and quite possibly their family trees too. The job is not over!
We have recently seen Eritrean factions duking it out at public festivals. This indicates Europe has been taking in asylum seekers from both or all sides of some conflict. Aren’t we great?
This is not the rainbow flag you are looking for. The correct one has 6 stripes, this one has 7. They are probably celebrating EM Spectrum Day.
Sounds unlikely that the Peruvian you mention sold all of his assets, etc. in order to get free stuff in the US. Would be interesting to know the proportion of the asylum seekers coming for free stuff and the proportion coming for the reasons that most of our families came, to be able to earn a decent living in a decent environment. Would also be interesting to know whether the proportion of the asylum seekers looking for free stuff is more or less than the local population. My guess is it is less, that the average asylum seeker is way more motivated to work and thereby earn a decent living than your average American.
jdc: Unless he identifies as a Venezuelan and therefore qualifies for Joe Biden’s selective magnanimity, neither Mr. Soto nor his (elderly?) mother featured by the Newspaper of Science are legally permitted to work. If it is illegal for him to work, how do you imagine that he and his mother will obtain shelter, health care, food, smartphone service, and home broadband if not via taxpayer funding? I hope that you aren’t suggesting that his intent in coming to the U.S. is to violate our laws by working for wages. As long as they request asylum, he and his mother have done nothing illegal and are simply using the U.S. system as designed.
Don’t worry, soon we will all be Venezuelans!
Yes, reminds me of that old saying: if you’re being run out of town, get in front and call it a parade.
A Venezuelan makes it to the US border, and we let him in. But who couldn’t come in with him? His pet squirrel. Because, you know, we have rules against such things:
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-border-squirrel-texas-6a1dbf8244837c87f41224e09a9dd613
If only he’d told them it was an emotional support squirrel, they’d both be living it up at some hotel in NYC.