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| As thousands of migrants from Central America wait for a chance to apply for asylum in the United States, some have organized protests to pressure U.S. officials to devote more resources to speed up the process. |
Trump keeps lying about immigration |
| By EJ Montini |
| It never should have come to this, to scenes of women and children running from tear gas fired by U.S. border agents. |
| And it wouldn't have happened if President Donald Trump hadn't done everything he could to create a crisis at the border. |
| He began concocting the humanitarian nightmare that now exists from the very beginning of his presidential campaign, falsely claiming that the southern border was being overrun by migrants. |
| The truth is that the number of border crossers apprehended by Border Patrol officers in 2017 was the lowest since the early 1970s. |
| Trump also knows — or should know — that the migrants in the caravan from Central America are fleeing from some of the worst situations on the planet. |
| Talker: Why do we even keep a relationship with Saudi Arabia? |
| As Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said over the weekend, the Trump administration "should have been working with these Central American countries a long time ago" to curb mass flight from violence and poverty. |
| Instead, Trump makes continuous threats and tries to rewrite the federal statute for asylum seekers without involving Congress. |
| The law guarantees the right to seek asylum, and a federal judge said Trump overstepped his powers trying to ignore the law. |
| Trump has said that the system has been overwhelmed by those seeking entry into the country, but the American Civil Liberties Union, in fighting Trump's power grab, pointed out that "in fiscal year 2018, Customs and Border Protection processed 1.25 million fewer people arriving at the southern border than in fiscal year 2000, despite having a budget and staff that has doubled since then." |
| Trump has also said that those who enter the USA seeking asylum "never show up at the trials. They never come back, they're never seen again." |
| Actually, they do show up for hearings. The Department of Justice reported that 89 percent of asylum seekers appeared for their hearings in 2017. |
| We could have been working on this problem in a constructive way from the moment Trump took office. Working with Central American countries to improve conditions and lessen the need for their citizens to flee and increasing the number of asylum officers so that those seeking a determination on their status don't have to wait for months and months in what are often dangerous settings. |
| Grandstanding isn't problem solving. Instead, we get grandstanding by the president before the midterm elections and now threats to shut down the entire border. |
| And we get images of women and children being gassed by U.S. border agents. |
| EJ Montini is a columnist at The Arizona Republic, where this column first appeared. You can follow him on Twitter: @ejmontini. |
 | | Migrant destiny | | Dario Castillejos/Oaxaca, Mexico/PoliticalCartoons.com | |
What our readers are saying |
| You can apply for asylum in the U.S. or begin the immigration/visa programs at a U.S. Embassy. It's not necessary to show up in person at the border. None of the countries these people passed through had a U.S. Embassy? |
| — Sam Micheletti |
| Paranoia and fear strike deep in the heartland. So sad that so many Americans are so fearful of people who are just like their ancestors. We turn our backs on freedom and American values toward tear gas and walls. What has America become? Certainly not the land of the free and the home of the brave. |
| — Joe Doerger |
| Migrants in the caravan are already showing that they have no respect for authority by hurling insults and trash. So why let them come in? Nothing good can come from it. |
| — Mike Jackson |
| People, keep your children and loved ones safe. And don't try to breach a sovereign border. You are responsible for your actions and how they affect you and yours. |
| — Tim Turney |
What others are saying |
| Antonio De Loera-Brust, HuffPost : "The Trump administration wants us to believe that simply allowing the large group of Central American asylum seekers to come in is impossible, that it would be nothing short of opening the borders to anyone and everyone. But the truth is that we could process these asylum claims fairly and quickly and with compassion, something our current system makes too difficult. ... Even more important, our booming economy needs new labor flows just as much as Central American migrants need new lives. A deal-maker like President Donald Trump should know how to spot a win-win." |
| Christopher Cuomo, CNN, Twitter: "I have seen lots of people, kids, elderly gassed. I have been gassed. It sucks. The situation sucks, but the point is to not demonize the men and women in duty without cause, and to address the problems that lead to them facing this overwhelming group of people who deserve help." |
| The Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer, editorial : "Immigrants continue to be not a threat to our country, but a vital part of our culture and, yes, economy. Imagine if this most recent caravan had been treated as such, that instead of sending more than 5,000 troops to the southern border, the president had instead sent a few thousand nonmilitary personnel to accommodate a surge of peaceful asylum applications. ... Perhaps there would be no tear gas, no children and mothers choking on our fear, and this country of immigrants could look something closer to humane." |
| To join the conversations about topics on USA TODAY or provide feedback to this newsletter, email jrivera@usatoday.com, comment on Facebook, or use #tellusatoday on Twitter. |
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