By BARBARA SIMPSON
While the Southwest of the United States sweltered in plus-100 degree heat the weekend of June 10 and Americans did all they could to get out of the heat, thousands of people from south of the border are marching north to us – the U.S. — with plans to cross the border and melt into the population of our country.
It’s said to be one of — if not “the” — largest such movement of people hoping for illegal entry/amnesty into our country — estimates are from 6,000 to 10,000 people!
Officials know about it, but from what I’ve seen in the news, virtually nothing is being done about it. Slow it down? Turn it back? Stop it? Strengthen our border? Call out the military?
It seems that officials are “just looking” at what is taking place and the Border Patrol and local police will be left to their own devices when those people approach the border.
They work for us — all of us — and I don’t envy their situation.
The migrants are from many countries — Venezuela, Panama, Colombia, and other South American countries as well as Haiti, Cuba, and countries from Europe and the Middle East. It is a veritable United Nations of migrants, all hoping to find refuge in this country.
But many first try for refuge in Mexico and, according to Human Rights Watch, last year that country apprehended more than 300,000 migrants wanting asylum. The system was overwhelmed, and most were turned away.
According to Panama’s National Migration Service, that country has been inundated with refugees from Venezuela seeking a better life. It’s reported that in just the first five months of this year, more than 32,000 migrants have crossed.
The people who are making these treks for freedom face much more than desert heat. They are targets for fraudulent schemes by human traffickers who promise them passage, for a price of course — to outright bandits who steal all they have, and often rape the women and leave them to the elements, with nothing for survival.
A Venezuelan migrant who was traveling with his son and pregnant wife told authorities that bandits had stolen all of their belongings. “They left us without money, without food, without clothes. With nothing.”
To call it a Hell on Earth, is putting it mildly.
Yet they keep coming, because conditions in their home country are so bad and because they know that the United States has weak border enforcement and, once they get in, the chances of them being deported are slim to almost none!
What most Americans don’t know is that the feds are transporting busloads and planeloads of illegal border crossers to cities and towns in the United States. They don’t tell or ask the local municipalities if it’s OK with them — they just do it, usually at night. In essence, they are dumping illegals (yes — that is what they are) onto the responsibility of smaller governments. Like it or not. They have no say about it.
Thank you, President Biden and our government.
The locals then have to deal with the growing population in their jurisdiction, the need for social welfare for these people and not the least of which is having to face the language and educational disparities.
No one has put a price on these activities that I have seen, but it must be monumental across the country.
An interesting angle on this movement of people is the fact that many Americans are moving too — from one state to another and, in fact, from our country to another. The reason for most of the moves is the cost of living in their home state. The one state seeing a huge movement of people — an exodus — is California. It is incredibly expensive to live in that state — from the basic cost of living to taxation. It hurts average budgets. Many Californians say they’ve had enough and so they’re out.
Official estimates are that more than 360,000 people left the state last year. The trends show that they primarily go to Texas, Arizona, and Washington. They prefer the current economic situation there but it should be noted that the residents of those states aren’t too happy about the influx of Californians. They claim they bring the loose philosophy of Golden State with them and end up trying to change the new state to a California philosophy.
It isn’t a happy situation; just ask the people of Oregon what happened to them after the influx of Californians who started voting there to change things.
An interesting aspect of the movement of California residents is that a huge number of them are choosing to move to — Mexico! The claim is that they prefer the relaxed lifestyle of that country as well as the fact that it is more affordable for them to live there. Certainly, it is more affordable than the cost of living in California, which is one of the country’s most expensive states to live in.
The trend is catching the attention of real estate personnel, to say nothing of state officials who see it as a way of reducing state income from taxes on residents.
That hasn’t stopped elected officials who continue to propose new taxes and in fact, that has resulted in the situation that California has the highest tax surplus in history. It’s nearly $100 billion!
The biggest problem facing Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom is not how to get money for his pet projects, but to come up with enough projects to use up the surplus! It’s a politicians’ dream! But a taxpayers’ nightmare for, after all, that’s where that money came from.
At this point, no one knows the solution to the “problem” — the governor and elected officials are looking at all possibilities. In the interim, residents are continuing to pay the existing taxes. Those payments hurt and for those for whom it hurts too much, a move southward may be in the cards.
Whether that’s a smart move or not, remains to be seen. Do they really want to be “Mexican”? Time will tell.
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