Subject: Re: Migrant Crisis 'Will Destroy NYC
I think there is legitimate blamesharing to go around between Democrats and Republicans regarding immigration problems in the more specific realm of PROCESS related issues -- adequately funding the judiciary for the required number of immigration judges, funding the resources needed for temporary housing during processing, devising a better tracking system that makes permanent (intentional?) separation of children from parents impossible, etc.

However, it's likely both sides are failing to address the underlying economic issues across the hemisphere that are also driving these attempts at mass immigration. Except for a relatively few wanting to come to America for purely entepreneaurial reasons (to make it big in semiconductors, computers, the latest scientific wave...), MOST people don't willingly leave their homeland with nothing but the clothes on their back and whatever fits in a sack or a purse to come to a new country. No one is sleeping in until 10:00am every day in Caracas, Venezuela then suddenly saying "HEY, you know what would be great? Trekking across seven countries on foot, dodging a bunch of gun-toting nuts in Brownsville and trying to get into America to sleep on the street or score welfare benefits and sleep in at my cousin's."

That's NOT what is driving immigration.

Crime from drug cartels and collapsing economies and hyperinflation are triggering these immigration attempts. I know nothing about Venezuela's long-term political and economic history but I know the antagonism between the US and Venezuela has made it impossible to devise ways the two countries could alter the current situation to lessen the exodus. We certainly should be in a better position to work with Mexico to help them curtail more of it at THEIR southern border -- a MUCH SHORTER BORDER mind you -- rather than resorting to insane posturing like suggesting using US military in Mexico to block immigration into the United States. And obviously, solving our own drug problems in the US would do a great deal to eliminate the flow of dollars to drug cartels in Mexico whose violence and government corruption are triggering Mexicans themselves to flee to the US.

Very few in the public sphere seem to be communicating any ideas on these REAL underlying problems. Without solving the strategic problems, solving the practical problems will continue to be difficult, expensive and ultimately ineffective for all involved.


WTH