Trump is Lawless on the Border

[_Kevin Graham]

This is what Trump should do about the migrant caravan

As the first arrivals from the latest Central American caravan reach the U.S. southern border, it is high time for the Trump administration to move from crisis mode to pro-active planning.

To begin, Washington must acknowledge the gang war that is engulfing Central America. The region sees some of the highest homicide rates in the world, and many of those fleeing their homes are driven north by this violence. They have a “well-founded fear of persecution” and thus qualify as refugees. Washington must give them the protections and rights of the international agreements it helped create.

This will not produce a northward rush of Central American migrants as the current administration so fears. In 2014, after a wave of migrants from the region traveled to the United States, driven by the violence in their countries, Washington began to grant a few of them refugee status, and no such additional surge occurred. Nevertheless, in June of this year, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions reversed the Obama-era policy.

In addition to treating migrants with dignity, the United States must address the root cause of the migration: the violence. One way is to encourage Central American governments to broker more peace deals between rival gangs. Back in 2012, I met with El Salvador’s minister of security, David Munguia Payes. A former general and now minister of defense, Munguia Payes was known as a “mano dura,” a hardliner. He spoke about the “war” between the two major gangs and supported a negotiated truce. It was of course an imperfect deal and it held for only 18 months. But during that time, it reduced homicide rates from 15 per day to less than five and is credited with saving over 5,000 lives.

Alongside this top-down approach, the United States must mobilize citizens and local civil society to reestablish public safety. In Honduras, the United States started partnering in 2012 with the Alliance for Peace and Justice, a coalition of dozens of civil society groups. During this time, Washington helped the alliance report and collect data on the violence, vet and purge the police force of corrupt officials, generate momentum to replace a lackluster attorney general and implement new laws for safer streets. During the 2013 Honduran presidential race, the U.S. assisted local groups in building television and radio campaigns to pressure candidates to focus on crime.

Through complimentary initiatives, there are now 25 community centers across Honduras that provide safe spaces and programming for young people. In Tegucigalpa’s most crime-ridden neighborhood, the United States assisted citizens in partnering with police and prosecutors to build upon a witness protection program, which led to an 85 percent homicide conviction rate. Throughout the region, the United States backed land registration of the disempowered to counter the prevalence of violent, illegal seizures of private property.

All of these initiatives are positive steps forward, but they need expansion. Those who lead these efforts are only a few and they often become targets of established forces. Take the extra-judicial killing of indigenous organizers in Guatemala, seeking to protect their historic lands. The government has yet to pursue those who murdered them.

The United States could help in this matter. Five years ago, when I was assistant secretary of state, the State Department’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations supported the prosecution of high-profile crimes in Honduras. We know how to do this, and we also have the technical expertise of skilled professionals from neighboring countries to guide us. At the same time, the United States should condemn military officials and members of law enforcement who prey on dissidents, as well as restrict the travel of their family members to the United States.

Similarly, the United Nations’ independent impunity investigatorin Guatemala, Iván Velásquez Gómez, has done great work, only to be banned by the current government. Thanks to his work, for the first time, high ranking officials were convicted. In another case, a sitting president at the time, Álvaro Colom, was exonerated after being framed for murder. These efforts led to meaningful criminal justice reforms, anti-corruption laws and high security courts for the prosecution of powerful individuals, among others. The United States should announce its support for these initiatives while looking to expand them across the region.

Finally, the United States must restore the rule of law at its own borders, starting with the processing of over a half million pending asylum claims. This is justice delayed. Let’s call on the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration to assist with the backlog. Let’s mobilize our own civil society to move families of asylum seekers from detention centers and private prisons to private homes by promoting and subsidizing “Host a Family” programs, at a fraction of the $300 or more per day that it costs to detain them. The United States could also join with Mexico’s new government to expand temporary worker programs.

There are so many good options. Combining American ingenuity with local initiatives, and enforcing the rule of law, will reduce violence in the region. That should spare us more chaos and discord within our country.

[_Jersey Girl]

I asked what YOU think. You can't articulate your own thoughts without throwing up an article to do the talking/thinking for you?

Get away from me with that crap.

[_Kevin Graham]

This is a pretty good run down of what typically happens at the border, or should happen.

Here’s what happens when migrant caravan arrives at U.S. border

Q: What happens when they reach the U.S.?

It is impossible to predict how many of the migrants will eventually reach the border. In the past, hundreds of migrants have fallen away from caravans as they traveled, either turned back by Mexico, settling there, or setting off on their own.

The migrants usually intend to turn themselves in to authorities in the U.S. Once they’re at a designated port of entry or if they are apprehended trying to cross illegally, they can tell officials that they have a fear of persecution in their home country. That triggers an asylum interview.

Q: Where will they arrive?

A caravan last spring ended up in Tijuana, so most of the migrants tried to cross at the San Ysidro port of entry south of San Diego.

That border crossing is the busiest in the hemisphere and regularly has long wait times for migrants seeking asylum. In April, some migrants had to wait there for weeks.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan testified at a congressional hearing in July that the wait at that crossing at the time was 1,000 people long. The port can process 50 to 100 people a day, he said.

Q: So will they be let into the U.S.?

It depends. By law, asylum seekers must be given a chance to make their case once they set foot on U.S. soil. But the U.S has been stopping people before they get to the border, which officials call the “limit line,” until space is available. There is a shelter network on the Mexico side of the border.

An inspector general report analyzing the administration’s handling of the family separation crisis this summer faulted that “metering” for causing more people to cross into the U.S. illegally after they were turned away from the port of entry.

Long waits could also worsen an already dangerous situation, said Eric Olson, an expert on Mexico and Latin America at the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan institute in Washington. Cartels target desperate migrants at the border, he said, and homicide rates have skyrocketed there this year.

“You introduce more chaos, more uncertainty to those areas and you’re going to exacerbate a very difficult humanitarian situation,” Olson said “There are very active criminal organizations operating in those areas that specialize in moving migrants, and they are going to certainly take advantage of the situation.”

Q: What happens once they’re here?

Once on U.S. soil, either legally at a crossing or caught illegally, an immigrant claiming fear of persecution back home is interviewed to assess whether that fear is “credible.” Those who pass that screening are given a court date, often years in the future, at which they can make their case for asylum. Those found not to have a credible fear are put into expedited deportation proceedings.

Most immigrants waiting for asylum proceedings are let out of detention, often with tracking devices. The Trump administration, however, has sought to be able to detain immigrants for longer and to move their cases through faster.

Q: Is the U.S. preparing for their arrival?

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment about preparations for the caravan. In a statement, Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the U.S. would work with other countries to prosecute criminal organizations that “prey” on migrants.

Ur Jaddou, a former counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration who now works for pro-immigration advocacy group America’s Voice, said the administration should be getting ready.

Instead, Jaddou said, Trump is “stoking fear, tweeting about it. ... He’s using this to scare people rather than seeing it as, ‘We have a problem, we should address it appropriately,’ as a good government should do.”

Q: What are the migrants’ chances of being granted asylum?

Historically, roughly 80 percent of migrants pass their initial credible-fear interview, but fewer end up winning their legal case for asylum. To stay in the U.S., asylum seekers must prove to an immigration court that they are being persecuted for something they cannot change, and that their government is unable or unwilling to protect them.

Q: What has changed, if anything, under Trump?

The administration has made it even more difficult for many Central Americans to win asylum. Jeff Sessions has used his unique authority as attorney general to overrule the immigration courts’ appellate body and reinterpret asylum law more narrowly. Sessions ruled this summer that most victims of domestic and gang violence don’t qualify for asylum, a decision over which California has sued the administration.

But the right to claim asylum is not something the Trump administration can change by itself. That is enshrined in both domestic and international law, and would require legislation in Congress to change.

Q: What about families and children?

Laws and court settlements require that immigrant children be held in custody for only short periods — either three days by themselves or 20 days as part of a family. Children who arrive alone must be handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services, which runs a shelter network that houses the children until they can be placed with an adult in the U.S.

The Trump administration separated more than 2,500 families to prosecute the parents this spring, then backtracked amid an international outcry. Since June, families caught crossing the border illegally have been held and processed together and most have been released into the U.S. with monitoring if they pass their asylum interview.

[_Kevin Graham]

I asked what YOU think. You can't articulate your own thoughts without throwing up an article to do the talking/thinking for you?

Get away from me with that ____.

I've stated many times the system was working fine before, it just needs more resources to operate more efficiently. Instead of funding a $200 million camping trip for troops on the border, why not use that money to fund more case workers to expedite the processes of asylum seekers so they're not standing out there for weeks waiting?

Your question presumes the system was broken before Trump arrived on his black horse, and that it needs some kind of miracle cure. I don't accept that premise. It was working fine before, but Trump successfully used immigrants as a boogeyman to gin up support from his racist/bigoted base.

[_Kevin Graham]

I asked what YOU think. You can't articulate your own thoughts without throwing up an article to do the talking/thinking for you?

Get away from me with that ____.

I posted just seconds after you posted your question so I didn't see it at first. Forgive me for not being more diligent in combing through the thread for possible questions from newcomers.

#Sheesh

[_Jersey Girl]

Taking a step back...Kevin let me reframe my basic inquiry in a way that I think you'll better understand what I'm trying to find out. What's left of my brain to yours.

What the “F” do you think the damned Trump adminstration should do RIGHT damned NOW when faced with upwards of 5 thousand damned refugees trying to get across the goddamn border at one damned time?

Right now. Real time.

[_Jersey Girl]

I asked what YOU think. You can't articulate your own thoughts without throwing up an article to do the talking/thinking for you?

Get away from me with that ____.

I posted just seconds after you posted your question so I didn't see it at first. Forgive me for not being more diligent in combing through the thread for possible questions from newcomers.

#Sheesh

Newcomers my ass.

[_Kevin Graham]

Newcomers my ass.

Newcomer to the discussion Jersey Girl.

[_Jersey Girl]

I can't recall the exact numbers however, the caravan is estimated at 4900 and change. Approx. 900 are females, 800 are children and the rest, approx. 3K are adult males.

I don't know about anyone else, but I think it's a safe bet that out of the 3K males that some of them are parents of the children, and some of them are what I might call tagalongs.

In that estimated say, 2K left that make up the group of tagalongs--how in the bloody hell do we know what their motives are and how do you expect the damned Trump admin/border patrol/freaking guard...to shelter them all at once so they can be vetted?

How, Kevin? How?

Tell me how you would facilitate that were you the President?

Do you care if some of the folks are nefarious types and how would you sort them out in a group of 5K all at once, all in the same place, the same time?

[_Jersey Girl]

Newcomers my ass.

Newcomer to the discussion Jersey Girl.

You are wasting my time. I have made my questions more specific. How about use that brain in that pretty little head of yours that sits atop mount muscles for days to come up some you know, ideas?