Current events have once again brought the tragedy on our southern Border front and center. And, once again the finger pointing has resumed. Pres. Biden deserves a failing grade for his performance thus far.  Engaging in a semantic battle over words such as “surge” and “crisis” is simply absurd.  The real question, year after year, has been what to do for the children.  So far the perennial answer has been nothing.  Pres. Obama back in 2008 pronounced that there was indeed a “Humanitarian Crisis” on our southern border, and even then it was nothing new. A humanitarian response remains off-limits.

This lack of action should come as no surprise seeing as how the anti-immigrant forces have long-ago hijacked Congress and stalled efforts at immigration reform.   Twenty-five years since the last Congressional Reform bill was passed these forces have solidified their grip on the Hill. Once again unaccompanied minors find themselves betwixt border defenders and hand-cuffed politicians of all stripes.    

 Just as before the administration continues to ignores the true dynamics of the exodus of refugees from the Northern Triangle region.  Waves of refugees have crossed our southern border since the 1980’s when the civilian population began fleeing the fighting, massacres, and U.S. sponsored mayhem in order to avoid being trapped between the cross-fire of government and rebel troops and their opposing ideologies.  The Reagan administration considered these refugees “collateral damage” of the Cold-War era.  It refused, with disastrous consequences, to recognize them as “war refugees,” insisting they were mere “economic refugees.”  That play on words resulted in Federal Court litigation which led the government to concede that it had systematically skewed the asylum process against legitimate claimants.  Consequently, it entered into a Consent Decree requiring it to reopen the process to allow thousands of class members to refile their asylum claims and have a new and fair review of them, consistent with the law.  Dramatically, the Court rejected the government’s notion that citizens from our allied neighbors could ever qualify as refugees. 

Subsequent waves of refugees came fleeing financial and other insecurities facing propped-up governments trying to rebuild their war-torn economies while forcing civilians and former combatants to live side by side as if the atrocities of the wars could be forgotten and their now tainted neighbors forgiven.  Uneasiness over this “Peace” arrangement produced another round of refugees streaming across our southern border.  Never once did “Uncle Sam” admit to its complicity nor bother to provide the American public a straight answer.   Unfortunately, nothing has seemed to change.

Not to be forgotten was Mother Nature’s imprint.  It visited the Northern Triangle and ravaged it with Hurricanes, Earthquakes, and multi-year droughts.  These natural disasters contributed greatly to additional waves of refugees.  Over the past twenty years Congress in its periodic reauthorization process for TPS has consistently revisited El Salvador’s country conditions and declared them mostly unfavorable.  Because of this thousands of Salvadorans refugees continue to obtain an extension of their TPS and avoid expulsion.  However, this “safe haven” has not been available to those who have entered the U.S. after 2001, creating a new “mixed-status” underclass.  Of course, none of this mattered to Pres. Trump who, without any thought, canceled the TPS program while kicking the exit date down the field. 

A constant overlay through most of the past few decades has been the societal impact of reverse migration of Central American youth.  Those who had spent years in the MS-13 and Barrio-18 street gangs wreaking havoc on our communities began to be deported as felons.  They returned home with a vengeance creating a new International Criminal Syndicate. Without much government interference they have ruled the extortion and kidnapping rackets and have more recently entered into the smuggling racket.  Now, if their extortion threats forces refugees to run, they are still guaranteed their smuggler’s fee.  That there is a hell of a racket. 

Next came the terrorists acts of 9/11 birthing a new breed of “National Security” concerns on our southern border.  In the name of “National Security” we devised a malicious plan to deter future border crossers by choking off their normal entry points and forcing them to take the more hazardous routes through the deadly Sonoran Desert.  In spite of the reports of an unknown number of deaths on the trail, and the criminal prosecution of those leaving water for them, the waves of refugees simply continue to find their way North.  And the harder the U.S. government tries to make their journey impossible the more lucrative the smuggling business becomes. 

Last weekend DHS Secretary Alejandro Majorca’s did his part to help clarify the situation. He stated in unequivocal terms that our southern Border is “CLOSED.”  He noted that families, and single adults, continue to be deported and sent back home.  In that sense, Sec. Mayorkas was telling us the truth, if only the half of it.  The other half is that the children are still deemed to be illegal border crossers.  They will be placed in removal proceedings while the fools on the hill debate semantics.  These border games show no sign of being play according to the “Queens Rules” let alone U.S. asylum laws. Thus, Pres. Biden may well inherit the tag of the new “Deporter-In-Chief.” This is what happens when politicians feign concern and promise to examine the root causes of “crises.”    

The truth has always been that our southern border was closed.  Blink – Blink.  When it was just Mexican laborers and farmworkers crossing over to work and take their earnings back home with them everybody recognized when a good Blink was in order.  When the southern border crossers became “war refugees” fleeing with their families the blinking became subtle and buried from plain view.  Thus it was, that another much-needed discussion on immigration was avoided and remains unresolved. The Trump administration annoyed about this state of affairs unabashedly went about truly closing the southern border without regard to laws or humanitarian considerations.  It did everything short of ordering Federal troops to open fire on border-crossers.

Sealing the border has replaced thoughtful analysis of immigration policies.  Following Trump’s lead, and at the 11^th hour, his Acting Attorney General (via the Board of Immigration Appeals) issued a revised A.G. Decision in Matter of A-B.  To clear up any remaining doubts left by his predecessor he ruled that applying the law correctly most victims of gang violence, generalized crime, and Domestic Violence are suffering from “localized” incidents, are unlikely to show that their government is unable to protect them and should make efforts to relocate in their own country.  In short, they have no basis under the law to qualify for asylum.  This ruling applies to adult border crossers and unaccompanied minors alike. The difference being that the children will not be turned away at the border.  The hidden truth is that they will continue to be considered as being here illegally and will be allowed to pursue their asylum claims in removal proceedings where they will find Matter of A-B insurmountable.  And, given the extent to which the asylum process has been tampered with we can reasonably conclude that they do not have a fighting chance of prevailing.  They are mere pawns being subjected to a cruel and inhumane exercise of procedural due process.

At this rate, and left unchanged, the effect could easily result in Pres. Biden becoming the next “Deporter-in-Chief.”  Like Pres. Obama before him Biden, having inherited a sinking ship, will find himself before a Board of Inquest and held to account due to his being at the Helm and in charge.  The real question remains, who has the courage to stop playing word games and fess up to the American public, would-be refugees, and the International Community?