MIGRANTS: WHAT TO DO?
First, a few figures:
Attempted crossings at the US southern border Oct. 2022 to Sept. 2023: 3.1 million. Number encountered by US Customs and Border Protection: 2.5 million. Number entering US undetected: 600,000 (est.) Number expelled or departed voluntarily: 930,000.
What are some solutions that have been suggested for this unprecedented flood of migrants?
More money to process the backlog of migrants, especially of asylum seekers.
Narrowing the grounds for admission to the US especially for asylum seekers.
Building more of a wall at the border.
Requiring asylum seekers to apply for entry to the US in other countries, for example Mexico.
Limiting use of “humanitarian parole”, allowing easy entry to migrants from states regarded by the US as unfriendly or failed, for example Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Improving conditions in migrant-exporting countries (foreign aid is just 0.2% of the GDP of the US).
Allowing entry of more migrants: it is estimated that a 1% growth rate for the US population would require the entry of 4 million migrants a year, as US families are having ever fewer children, and we need workers for service jobs as well as jobs requiring highly skilled workers.
Some of the solutions are more humane than others. Humane solutions should always be preferred to the more restrictive ones.
Source: New York Times, Sunday Opinion section 1/14/24