What is happening
People from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and other countries are getting locked up at the border. Migrants are being held in overcrowded facilities without enough food and water to be healthy. The migrants at the border don’t have proper ventilation or sanitation. These places are unstable living environments and no one should ever have to feel the pain that people at the border have to deal with.
Causes
The cause of all of the migrants coming to the border is because their homes are not safe or they need better jobs. The migrants want better opportunities for themselves and their children. In their countries lots of crime and poverty are happening. They are running to America hoping for better lives for their families.
Many Americans do not accept migrants because they think that they will start crime in the United States because there is crime in their original countries. Some Americans also think that migrants will take jobs away from Americans. Some Americans think that migrants will never be their friends. They are fearful of people who are different from themselves.
Barriers
There are many barriers for the migrants to get here. First there is the border they have to get through and that can be very tough. Also, there are language barriers. If they do get through how do they communicate with people in America? When they come to America, they do not have much money so that is another barrier. Maybe when migrants come to America, they might not be educated. Also, migrants might not have very good job experience.
The Process
Migrants seeking asylum are not breaking the law. They have the right to get asylum. When migrants present themselves at the border, they go into custody. Migrants agree to go into custody because they fear for their lives. During the interrogation (question and answer session) the asylum seeker has to say that there is something dangerous and fearful in their home country. Then their case is referred to a regional asylum office. They must show the danger they are in when their asylum case is underway. If they do demonstrate fear, then sometimes asylum seekers will be released from custody and ordered to appear before an immigration judge to present their case. If they are granted asylum, they get a green card a year after the approval of their safety.
Solutions: Trump Administration
The Trump administration put in place some policies that are the so called “solutions.” These policies are keeping migrants out of the United States. Attorney General Jeff Sessions made a policy that acts of domestic and gang violence didn’t qualify as dangerous enough for asylum. This policy was thankfully defeated in court. Thousands of migrant children were separated from their families at the border. This is called the “zero tolerance policy” and it detained anyone found crossing the border illegally. The Trump administration solutions call for punishing and scaring people. The thing that Trump talks about the most is the wall that he wants to build to keep migrants out.
Solutions: Alternatives
A better way to handle asylum seekers is to give them work permits as soon as possible. Another thing that would help is having more courts and judges to handle all the asylum cases that are underway. Also, migrants should be able to have lawyers. And last, try to make Central America a place people want to be not violent.
Conclusion
The border crisis is a very difficult problem. To fix it we will need to get lots of people working together to stop this issue. If different groups of people cooperate then maybe they can solve the problem of the border crisis. The benefits of solving the border crisis is that then lots of different people will be in the United States, and they won’t be in danger anymore.
OPD:07192019
