Commentary:
I periodically take drives to Sacred Heart Parish in downtown El Paso, Texas, which has played a major role in assisting and sheltering immigrants who have crossed the border seeking asylum. I visit this church to see for myself what the numbers of migrants who have crossed the border look like. On a recent visit during a cold and windy afternoon, I saw groups of migrants massed on the sidewalk and on the side street that has been blocked off in order to accommodate people and port-a-potties. There were not thousands or hundreds of migrants at the Sacred Heart site, but about 100. Viewing the scenes of people lying on the cold sidewalk trying to stay warm, my heart was filled with frustration, not for the people who were suffering that day, but for the circumstances that put them there.
I am frustrated that it has been a few decades that Latin American nations such as Venezuela and Nicaragua have halted their path to democratic political systems to ones of populism and socialism. Leaders such as Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela have driven their countries’ economies into the ground and persecuted their citizens. Haiti has not had anything resembling an orderly government that cares for the welfare of Haitians. So many of the migrants who are crossing the southern border with Mexico are from these countries.
I am frustrated that the U.S. has chosen to put Latin America on the backburner from a political and economic standpoint. Latin American countries are our neighbors in the Americas, yet we have chosen to focus more on Asia and Europe. We have not chosen to actively create economic opportunities or treat most Latin American countries as partners. This has resulted in poverty and strife, which thus leads to people leaving their countries and families to seek a better life in the U.S.
I am frustrated that the U.S. has to go to Mexico to ask for that country’s assistance in stopping waves of immigrant groups traveling freely through Mexico to the U.S. border. It is disturbing that Mexico has allowed migrants to ride northbound trains by the thousands without removing them. It is likewise disturbing that Mexico simply states that it does not have adequate resources to prevent them from advancing. There might be a small bit of truth in this stance, but how many resources is it losing by having hundreds of thousands of migrants sleep on its streets, deplete its resources, and cause logistical problems, rather than preventing them from illegally crossing its southern border?
After U.S. officials recently had to travel to Mexico to enlist Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) in cooperating on the issue, he half-heartedly has begun to break up immigrant camps and remove migrants from trains. He could have been doing this all along. After the U.S. visit, AMLO chose to lecture the U.S. that it needs to end sanctions and send more economic aid to countries such as Cuba and Argentina. While his smugness on this issue is not helpful, he is right. Until nations such as these have the wherewithal to provide for their citizens, they will continue to leave for the U.S. in droves. AMLO has always posited himself as a champion of the poor and indigenous people, so this is right in his wheelhouse. However, it is highly unlikely that dealing with dictators, socialists, and U.S. agitators is a path the U.S. will take at the present time.
I am frustrated by how both parties in Congress point fingers at each other and treat the immigration issue as a political hot potato. Having Republican politicians visit the border for photo ops stating that the U.S. has an open border, or the border should be closed, needs to stop. It is also absurd to claim that migrants are being allowed into the country to change voting patterns. The Biden Administration has waited too long to actively address this issue, thus allowing it to become a political issue.
We need to stop the political rhetoric immediately. We can fix this problem if we really want to. When did we become a nation of cannot-doers? We are dealing with a wound that is hemorrhaging. We need to apply a tourniquet and Band-Aid immediately. This involves enforcing the laws on the books. If we have previously decreed that migrants must first apply for asylum in their own or a third-party country or they will not be allowed to apply for asylum in the U.S., let’s stick to this stance. We need to allocate more resources to this problem in terms of more boots on the ground, hiring more Border Patrol and CBP agents, more immigration judges and personnel, and more high-tech equipment for surveillance and intervention. While these actions are taking place, we need bipartisan action on changing our immigration and asylum laws. Our economy needs immigrants, so let’s figure out the best way to accept them.
AMLO is a lame duck, who will be out of office on December 1 and has little incentive in fully cooperating with the U.S. on the immigration issue. However, he receives tremendous backlash when the U.S. has to close ports of entry and move officers to high migrant areas. While I am totally against holding trade a hostage, this can at least be a negotiating point. The U.S. also needs to be talking to the Mexican presidential candidates now about cooperating on the immigration issue. We can solve the immigration issue if we want to.
Jerry Pacheco is President of the Border Industrial Association. Pacheco's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of KRWG Public Media or NMSU.