The US Border IS Secure

The Crisis We Really Face is the Hardening of the Human Heart

First, the news about the book: CROSSING THE LINE: FINDING AMERICA IN THE BORDERLANDS…

It hasn't quite crossed the finished line, but it’s almost there. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I've received signoffs from most of the story subjects. I've therefore started sharing pages with my first readers, who have thus far been quite positive. YAY!

Care for a sneak peek? Leave me a comment below. 😉

Now, in US immigration news...

Remember when we thought all we had to do was get rid of Trump and humanity would return to our border?

Sadly, one of the big takeaways of researching CROSSING THE LINE is that there has been precious little humanity within our immigration system since the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Said to be the first immigration policy ever enacted by Congress, it didn’t even try to hide its racialized intentions behind flowery words. It was meant to exclude. And it targeted a specific group.

Biden’s latest immigration moves are no different — though you won’t see the blatant racism embedded in the names of his latest two programs.

As we head into 2023, the Biden Administration is still misusing Title 42, like his predecessor, to manage the flow of people (not disease) at the southern border. More to the point, Biden has expanded Title 42, which he claims he hates. Yet, he has expanded Title 42 more than once.

First, he expanded it to exclude folks from all Western Hemisphere countries, not just the Northern Triangle. Then, he expanded it to exclude Venezuelans, even those who had survived the treacherous Darién Gap trail or were, at that time, in the midst of traversing it.

Now we get the real pinch: The VNCH, which one lawyer calls "vinch," though that doesn't appear to be catching on. This latest expansion of Title 42 now excludes not just Venezuelans, but Nicaraguans, Cubans, and Haitians, too.

They're calling VNCH a “humanitarian” parole program. And the media is raving! Suddenly, border “encounters” — DHS speak for arrests — have dropped. Success!

Well, sure, if by "success" you mean that you’re willing to remain deaf, blind, and dumb to the human suffering that has been disappeared to the other side of the wall.

Over there, in dangerous Mexican border towns, we’re back to Trump-era crises again: Homelessness. Overcrowded shelters. A new tent encampment on the Matamoros floodplain, 2,500 asylum seekers strong by some accounts; 4,000 by others. But this time without any infrastructure because Mexico bulldozed the previous encampment when Biden emptied it in early 2021.

Why? Because with Title 42 still in place, we continue to have bottlenecks of vulnerable people trapped in dangerous Mexican border towns.

Here’s what the “VNCH” Humanitarian Parole Program offers: Two years in the US with work authorization, while you await the outcome of your asylum claim. VNCH is available to up to 30,000 Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, Cubans, and Haitians a month. First come first served, i.e. no cap on any one nation group.

But, the VNCH Parole Progam is

• only available to asylum seekers from those four countries; and

• only if they can fly into the US.

So,

• only if they can afford a passport; and therefore

• only if they don’t need to pick up and run.

They must also have a sponsor in the US:

• sponsors must have legal resident status;

• sponsors must initiate the process, which starts with thorough vetting; and

• sponsors must prove they can afford to care for the applicant or applicants, if they are an asylum-seeking family.

Ergo, VNCH is not designed for the most vulnerable, which is to say folks:

• who don’t have time to wait;

• who have no one in the US to sponsor them;

• who can't afford a passport; or

• who are blocked from getting a passport by their home governments.

So, what if you are a V, N, C, or H and you don’t have a friend or family member to act as a sponsor, you can’t get a passport, or you are in such grave danger you cannot afford to wait? And what if you aren’t V, N, C, or H, and you're also stuck in Mexico unable to get into the US?

Well, there’s a second option JUST for you: a new app called CBP One.

After a few weeks on the streets, here’s my humble analysis. CBP One = metering.

Some would disagree with me on the grounds that the CBP One process is not first come first served, as metering was under first Obama, then Trump. But my feeling is if 1) you are vulnerable and 2) in danger but have to 3) wait to get an appointment to 4) ask to be exempted from Title 42 so that 5) you can get into the US in order to 6) start your asylum process, then you're being metered.

Also, CBP One only works:

• If you have a smartphone;

• If you have access to the internet;

• If you are literate in English or Spanish. (It's not even available in Haitian Kreyòl, yet -- talk about not reading the "room.")

Only then you can apply to have a meeting with a CBP officer to ask to be exempted from Title 42 based on your specific vulnerabilities. And only if they open the proverbial doors to you can you begin the asylum process, which is a legal right.

That’s a lot of hurdles to jump through to exercise your rights under US and international law.

And another potential hurdle is on the way, for Biden & Co are talking about re-instituting the controversial expedited removals process piloted under Trump & Co — controversial because the process resulted in many deportations back to harm.

Meantime, you wait. And if you’re homeless in Mexico, then you are waiting in very dangerous conditions, indeed. Meaning, it’s payday once again for gangs and extortionists and other criminal organizations.

Also, by all accounts, the app is still very buggy, threatening many with further time between the cracks.

Biden had two years to bring humanity to the border. And all we got was his whirlwind visit to El Paso, this stupid app, and more Title 42.

We don’t have a migration crisis at the US southern border. We have a crisis of the heart. We have a crisis of morality and of values.

It is not just one president that has brought us here; it is not just one man or one political party that has brought us here. We must cast to el dompe of history the fallacious narrative that we need "security" at the border.

The border is secure. Yet, it is precisely this rhetoric that gives politicians on both sides of the aisle the excuse to dehumanize and treat communities and people with cruelty.

We can do so much better. We must. And all we have to do is look to our border heroes and humanitarians. They show us every day that there is a better way.

Stay tuned for our relaunch of the podcast under the most appropriate new name:

Tales of Humanity from the Borderlands.

Now, want to be a first reader of CROSSING THE LINE: FINDING AMERICA IN THE BORDERLANDS? If so, let me know in the comments below.

In gratitude and solidarity,
Sarah