![]() “This was after Trump had already shown that he was willing to rip parents and children apart,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, says. Yet, with some of the most anti-immigrant messaging in generations coming out of the White House, 2019 saw some of the largest numbers of people at the border in recent history. If the words and policies of a US president, whoever they may be, had such a huge influence on flows of migration, then how do you explain 2019? Trump was in office and he had already shown from day one that he was anti-immigrant and that he would do whatever he could to keep people out of the country. ![]() If the words and policies of a US president, whoever they may be, had such a huge influence on flows of migration, then how do you explain 2019? “Messaging has an impact, but I cannot think of it as having a determinative impact,” says Yael Schacher, an immigration historian and senior US advocate at Refugees International. And while that may be true for some people, the numbers we’re seeing are not the result of messaging alone. There are many people, and in particular many elected Republicans, making the case that Biden’s approach to immigration, both by eliminating some-key word being some-of the cruel policies at the border and by saying he wants to create a “humane” immigration system, is sending a message to migrants to pack up and make the trek north. But, ultimately, messaging just doesn’t make a huge difference. US Customs and Border Protection data Critics keep harping on Biden’s messaging. Number of encounters at the US-Mexico border by fiscal year. So perhaps the more important question should be why the US government seems to be caught off guard every time there is an increase of migrants at the border-and what officials will do to better respond to this in the long term. And, again, while we should absolutely scrutinize the inhumane conditions in Border Patrol holding cells under Biden, just as we did under Trump, maybe the bigger issue is that we’re almost certain to have to do this again under whoever is in charge next. This week, I spoke with a couple of experts on border and immigration issues to bring much-needed context to the numbers, and to note differences in what we’re seeing today, as the number of families and unaccompanied minors in the custody of Border Patrol and Health and Human Services continues to rise. In all this, a few crucial points are getting lost in, or twisted by, the national conversation. Equally stunning, his views on immigration are explored only around how he hopes they will play in the 2022 midterm elections.” In an unusual move, the organization said these outlets “have appeared to be in a disturbing competition to be the first to decisively demonstrate that the Biden administration’s rollback of cruel and illegal Trump-era immigration policies is a disaster of mammoth proportions.” They singled out a recent Washington Post story that quoted Stephen Miller, Trump’s white nationalist immigration adviser: “His record is one of hatred and cruelty his opinions on immigration reflect that, and should be valued by absolutely no one. Human Rights First, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, went as far as to put out a statement condemning some of the recent reporting from the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Axios. Some immigration advocates have been noting this for days and criticized the sudden media hysteria around what’s happening at the Southern border. But for the US government, this is not an unprecedented set of circumstances. For the people held in horrible conditions, of course this is a crisis. But for the US government, this year’s influx is not an unprecedented set of circumstances we’ve been here before and we should’ve been better prepared. For the people held in horrible conditions, for the parents worried about their children in US custody, of course this is a crisis. Don’t get me wrong: There should be much attention paid to the treatment of vulnerable people in US border custody families, pregnant women, and little kids are being held outdoors for days under a bridge in Texas (reminiscent of how Trump detained people in March 2019), and US government officials are scrambling to place unaccompanied children out of US Border Patrol custody. ” But so much of this conversation is maddening-misleading at best, malicious at worst. Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.įor the last few weeks there has been a lot of talk about a “border crisis”-and, of course, if it even really qualifies as a “crisis.
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