Fearing Trump's Wall, Central American's Rush To Cross The Border

link

The two things that are clear:

We have to help these people
We cannot let everyone in

   How to strike some balance...God knows.

   One of the reasons I've generally wanted to keep out more economically-motivated illegals is because I'd like us to be able to offer asylum to more people fleeing violence. Though, of course, there are a lot of other places they might try to go in the Americas. This is the rough analog of Syrian refugees shlepping all the way across Europe and then trying to get into the UK or Sweden... The desire to avoid violence at A can't fully explain why you'd travel through B, C, D, and E to get to F.

   I had thought that the Obama administration was doing a decent job with respect to illegal immigration...but this piece makes it sound as if that isn't true when it comes to what's happening right at the border. 

Many of the Central Americans do not sneak over under the cover of darkness; they are delivered by smugglers to the banks of the Rio Grande and wade across in broad daylight to turn themselves in to Border Patrol. That’s because most of the migrants are asking for some type of asylum and, therefore, are entitled to go before an immigration judge to plead their case, rather than being quickly deported. But it often takes months, if not years, for the backlogged courts to determine whether asylum seekers face danger at home and deserve protection.
In the meantime, most of the migrants are released from detention after a few days. Often, they do not appear for their court dates. Of the 20,000 families whose legal proceedings ended with deportation orders between July 2014 and August this year, 85 percent did not show up in court, fueling the perception that migrants are gaming the system and intending to remain in the country illegally. [my emphasis]

Gee...ya think?