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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
VILLAGEAugust/September
INTERNATIONAL US IMMIGRATION
a family
crossing
into
Mexico
from
Guatemala
into Texas from Honduras, El Salvador and
Guatemala – that’s double the number from
the same period a year earlier.
Of the funds, as yet to be approved, some
$.bn will be spent on providing care for
unaccompanied children while they await
detention. $m of the $.bn allocated
to the Department of Homeland Security will
go towards paying the cost of transporting
unaccompanied children back to their origi-
nal countries, and a further $m will be
spent in Central America supporting bor-
der control.
As Obama’s plans continue to hinge on a
decision from Congress, some Republicans
have stated that the funds should be drawn
from existing foreign-aid programs that
assist the immigrants’ home countries.
Republicans blame Obama for previous
legislation he enacted to defer deportation
of some immigrants who had entered the US
illegally as children, claiming this has sent
the wrong message.
On the other hand Obama is also running
into trouble with some in his own party for
his attempts to circumvent or reverse legis-
lation brought into law in by George W
Bush; the ‘William Wilberforce Trafficking
Victims Protection Reauthorization Act’
guarantees extra legal protection to Central
American immigrants. Reversing it would
allow, for example, such immigrants to be
returned to their countries in as little as a
week.
The American Civil Liberties Union
has filed a class action lawsuit against the
Obama administration’s attempt to reverse
the anti-trafficking act, claiming
that the government is violating the fifth
amendment due process clause, as well as the
Immigration and Nationality Act’s require-
ment of a “full and fair hearing”.
According to US Department of Justice fig-
ures, % of migrants appeared in court in
without legal representation; few are
entitled to court-appointed attorneys and
most rely on pro bono lawyers or non-profit
groups.
However, with over , outstand-
ing immigration cases currently waiting
to be heard by just specialist judges
across the US, Obama is keen to be seen to
be taking action, even if he was elected on an
Immigration liberalisation platform.
The influx of migrants through Texas
has less to do with just economics or simple
opportunism than with myriad socio-eco-
nomic problems throughout Central
America. Honduras has the world’s high-
est murder rate, while both El Salvador and
Guatemala are riven with both extreme pov-
erty and crime.
Central America itself functions as a stop-
off point for drug smuggling between South
America and the US – yielding a long history
of gang violence. The problem has intensi-
fied in recent years due to turf wars fought
by Mexican cartels. For many in Central
America, who have witnessed friends, fam-
ily or neighbours being killed on the streets,
the perilous trip to the Mexican border is
worth risking.
Republicans castigate Obama for his inac-
tion, while most Democrats oppose any
change to the anti-trafficking act. The
President attracted further criticism when
he failed to visit the border on a recent visit
to Texas. He has criticised Congress for its
inaction and pointed out how a bill, passed
by the senate last year, but rejected by the
House, would have added an extra ,
border patrol agents.
The solution seems to comprise four
elements: a pathway to citizenship for
undocumented immigrants, an easier legal
immigration system, better enforcement
and more border security. But as usual in
the US, stasis is the fruit of partisanship as
a visceral xenophobia substitutes for ideol-
ogy or clarity of purpose. •
O
N a typically fine July afternoon in
California, three buses pull into
the small, parched border town of
Murrieta, but don’t outstay their welcome.
Awaiting their arrival is a group of pro-
testers, ventilating placards and pent-up
vitriol in the heat. “USA, USA”, they chant,
“Go back home!”. Inside the buses, approx-
imately undocumented migrants – all
women and children from Central America
fleeing abject poverty and violence – have
submitted their fates at the border patrol sta-
tion in Murrieta. But it won’t be so easy: they
are turned around to be driven to processing
centres at least miles away in San Diego
and El Centro.
An influx of illegal immigrants crossing
the border from Texas into the US has led to
widespread hysteria amongst protesters in
border towns. One republican, Phil Gingrey,
in a letter to the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, expressed his own concern
at imminent danger by writing: “Reports of
illegal immigrants carrying deadly diseases
such as swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus
and tuberculosis are particularly concern-
ing. I have serious concerns that the diseases
carried by these children may begin to
spread too rapidly to control”.
In July, the Obama administration warned
lawmakers that US border-control agencies
would run out of resources and that migrant
children would run out of beds if Congress
did not approve $.bn in funds. More than
, children have arrived at the south-
ern US border since last October, trafficked
Immigration reform should provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented
immigrants, an easier legal immigration system, better enforcement and more
border security. By Ken Phelan
Stasis in the Southern heat
Under pressure from republicans, Obama is
attempting to assuage the anti-immigrant
lobby by stemming the flow of migrants and
by changing immigration law
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