The United States is facing a border crisis due to the increase in immigrants who, as a result of the economic situation in their countries of origin or because of climate change, have been forced to go in search of the American dream. The issue becomes urgent in view of the upcoming elections, where Democrats are concerned that the situation will be politicized.
According to figures from the U.S. Border Patrol (CBP), in the first week of December 2023, 9,923 people were detained daily trying to cross from Mexico to the United States.
Of these figures, according to the CBP, 2,398 are Mexican and 7,525 are of other nationalities, so it was estimated that 307,000 people would be detained at the border by the end of 2023 (of which almost 75,000 would be from Mexico).
However, immigrants are currently coming from all over the world (52 percent), unlike a few years ago, when the majority came from Mexico and Central America, and “that is a great difficulty,” assured Angela Kelly, Senior Advisor for Policy and Partnerships at the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the American Immigration Council (AIC), during a briefing held by Ethnic Media Services.
“Immigration has changed in recent years, it has changed in the form and the number of encounters, this means that if the border patrol were to deal with all the people who are coming in, before they would have said it was impossible, but today it is 4,000 or 5,000 a day, the numbers we see now are up to 11,000,” said Angela Kelly.
President Joseph Biden is expected to use his authority to create a legal path for protection in order to enter the country, considering that there are key points that can improve the movement of migrants, including how to better serve more of those seeking asylum, since the daily flow far exceeds the capacities of immigration agencies, said Angela Kelly, while acknowledging that the problem will continue.
Kelly stressed that it is important to recognize that new avenues and policies have been created to provide immigrants with more options, but in practice the expected results have not been achieved.
Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America's Voice, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit that advocates for immigrant rights, said the lack of immigration reform is partly the reason for the current severe immigration crisis, as the country's immigration system has not been updated in recent years, although efforts have been made to fix and improve it.
The expert highlighted that the main reasons that have driven the increase in the flow of migrants on the southern border are the unstable economy of their countries of origin and the impacts of climate change, so not everything is centered on the policies of the United States.
Cárdenas added that America is an immigrant nation, as more than 80 percent of American voters accepted a progressive option, “America wants a compassionate legal system.”
“We are facing a significant threat. Trump has already said that he will carry out large-scale deportations and imprisonments, so they have already given an idea of what they are going to do. We must understand that this goes beyond our communities, beyond our immigrants. They are a threat to us,” said Cárdenas.
Lupita Martinez from the Coalition for Human Rights of Immigrants (CHIRLA), which is made up of diverse immigrant families and individuals who act as agents of social change at the national level to achieve a just society that fully includes immigrants.
“We have seen many children who arrive very tired from the journey, from all the traveling. We have medical care waiting for them, as well as people who support us as translators, and we take them to a welcome center so they can rest and eat.”
In this way, they seek ways to support and help migrants who are sent to other various states of the American Union, welcoming them and supporting them to make their journey and stay easier.
CHIRLA received the first truck in June 2023 and to date more than 39 trucks of people have been served.
Likewise, he commented that only 3 percent of migrants who arrive in the country stay in Los Angeles, so they seek to guide and support them so that they reach their destinations. The way they work is through collective support, donations and other organizations that promote the work carried out.
Experts agreed that there is still much to be done and that the political and social circumstances facing other countries increase the flow of migrants to the southern border seeking to enter the United States to obtain a better quality of life, so these phenomena will continue to be present, and it will be the next administration that will have the task of improving the conditions of immigrants, betting that the Democratic Party will be a more viable option.
You may be interested in: Vaccination is and will be the key to protecting against COVID-19, influenza and RSV
