The 'crisis' about Title 42 is disturbing, because it should never have been a conversation.
During the '80's there was a huge influx of migrants from El Salvador escaping civil war. It was not a political problem, it was a situational problem. It might have been a smaller scale, but everything was a smaller scale 40 years ago. As an immigration attorney, I experienced the fairly orderly resolution. Immigration judges and attorneys were assigned, folks got their hearings and were heard. Almost all of them had family or organizations across the country willing to transport, house and take responsibility for them. Very few, if any, remained in the area of entry, without resources. Changes of venue were routine, and folks went to Chicago, Minneapolis, Sand Diego and little towns all across America. Their cases were then resolved in those areas. The last federal administration dissolved all refugee services in the US - which has caused a huge and unworkable burden on nonprofits and houses of faith. Those refugee services should have been revived by now. We can all pretend that Covid was the reason for Title 42 (wink, wink), but the same response of the 80's would work today, and there no reason to think it wouldn't. The administration was not caught unawares, but knew in advance this day was coming. Why was there not a plan in place to provide a proper and orderly processing? There is no reason for the RGV or El Paso or Southern California to be in the headlines. There is no reason for these people escaping for asylum to be denied and returned. We have procedures that work. We need to use them.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
February 2023
Categories |