U.S. Customs and Border Protection is preparing for "worst-case scenarios" that would see a continued increase in unaccompanied children at the border, with data projections showing that record-setting numbers of children could arrive at the border through September, Stef W. Kight reports for Axios. Meanwhile, Nick Miroff and Maria Sacchetti at The Washington Post report that the Department of Homeland Security anticipates 500,000 to 800,000 migrants to arrive as part of family groups this fiscal year.
As Ali alluded to last night, the administration will need to continue to expand capacity in order to process children and families in an orderly way — and ensure they’re treated humanely. At the same time, it’s clear that harsh, enforcement-only approaches have failed, as Adam Serwer deftly addresses in The Atlantic. Solutions closer to migrants’ home countries are necessary too, such as the ability to process asylum seekers in their home country or region, taking steps to root out corruption, and creating pathways other than asylum for Central American migrants to come legally.
FYI, we have national security experts, voices from faith and law enforcement communities at the border, and more available to speak to media about the current situation at the border. Interested media can contact Dan Gordon for more information.
I’m Joanna Taylor, Forum communications manager and your NN host today and tomorrow. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].
THE WHY — Why do migrant families undertake the journey to the U.S. In the first place? Arelis R Hernández of The Washington Post speaks to three dozen migrants to better understand the "complicated and varied set of personal and practical reasons that intersect where survival meets opportunity." Who is president of the U.S. and what message comes from their administration are not top motivators, migrants say — higher on the list
are "[v]iolence, impunity, hunger, climate change, persecution, the economic fallout of the pandemic and reuniting with family." People fleeing these situations "still believe the United States is where they will be safe and can prosper if given the chance. And for many, they see no other option."
SPEAKING OF CLIMATE CHANGE — As we noted last week, one driver of the current migration increase is desperation in the aftermath of Hurricanes Eta and Iota in Central America. The U.S. and other countries should expect more migration related to extreme weather and climate change in the future, Bryan Walsh of Axios reports. These global issues "will disproportionately affect the people living in the poorer, hot countries that are already a major source of migrants to the U.S.," Walsh notes, pointing out that there is no existing legal framework for climate refugees. As part of his executive order regarding refugee resettlement last month, President Biden called for a report on climate change and migration.
Q&A — In an interview with Zack Stanton for Politico Magazine, Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, talks about the many conditions contributing to the humanitarian crisis at the border, particularly the U.S. approach to enforcement in the absence of an adequate legal immigration system. "Enforcement works if it pushes people into real legal [immigration] channels. But if there are no legal channels, then people will just keep finding their way around enforcement," Selee notes. Ultimately, "[w]e need legal pathways for workers, and an asylum system that works, because we know some people are legitimately fleeing from violence. Those two things alone would make an enormous difference."
ENGLISH LEARNERS AT RISK — Fredy Solís, a teen immigrant from Guatemala, came to the U.S. with his father to try to help his family. Once here, he became a star math student. But the pandemic has put the nation’s 1.2 million English-language learners, including Fredy and his classmates, at particular risk, Bianca Vázquez Toness and Jenna Russell report in the Boston Globe. The reasons
include economic pressures, technological challenges, limited support and depression — all of which have affected members of Fredy’s 11-person Spanish class. "Students who are new to this country, and to English, have left school at higher rates than most others. And they are the students with the most to lose," Toness and Russell note.
‘IMMIGRATION IMPASSE’ — "Congress has repeatedly failed to acknowledge one simple thing: Immigration happens," writes Suzanne Gamboa of NBC News, meaning "America’s immigration impasse — an endless loop across different administrations — is largely self-inflicted." In the meantime, we're left with "multiple generations of young immigrants to have come of age here and moved into adult lives of limbo, stagnating
their economic mobility, along with their communities'." While the American Dream and Promise Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act (both of which passed the House earlier this month) are a major
step, Gamboa writes that these laws need to be perceived and treated as part of a dynamic and ongoing process where immigration laws "are continually adjusted, reformed and revised."
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