But is it a crisis?....Is apprehending tens of thousands of illegal border crossers a crisis? I wouldn't say so. After all, we're supposed to be apprehending them. ("Encounters" means they were caught.) I don't intend to minimize the problem on our southern border, but it's far deeper than just trying to prevent people from crossing, and the solution isn't to "build a wall" (just ask the Chinese...didn't work for them either).

My view is that it IS a crisis.....but not for us. The crisis characterizes the conditions of life that are so threatening to such vast numbers of people in Central and South America that they are willing to face the dangers of trekking to and entering the U.S., and then hopefully the unknowns and fears of trying to establish safer, more secure and sustaining lives here.

For us, it is a high-impact problem, a combination of the vast numbers of people hoping to enter and create lives here, and our broken system for handling anything but the most minimal demands. I can't even remember now the number of presidential administrations during which there have been loud calls for the need to create fair and workable regulations, adequate temporary facilities run with safety and dignity, provide sufficient legal personnel, etc. And the $$ has to be found to enable this to become reality.

Those many loud voices who are convinced that the solution is throttling the numbers of immigrants so they don't dilute our culture don't seem to remember that all of us here....except for indigenous Americans....are either immigrants or descended from immigrants. New ingredients are enriching. And these naysayers also forget that immigrants to one degree or another also absorb aspects of the culture they find here. It's a 2-way street.

What these naysayers also forget is that a significant part of the culture in the U.S. is offering our country as a safe haven for the persecuted. And you can't do that if you refuse to let them in.