The problem of illegal immigration in the United States is difficult to overcome

Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition

According to the Washington Post, U.S. law enforcement detained about 1.7 million illegal immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2021 (October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021), a historic peak, highlighting the inability and embarrassment of the current U.S. administration in handling illegal immigration.

Due to the forced deportation of Haitian immigrants and other incidents, the current US administration has been sharply criticized at home and abroad. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the U.S. would violate international norms by expelling refugees without assessing and screening their asylum needs.

Create a humanitarian crisis

U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows that in the fiscal year 2012 to 2020, the average annual number of arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border was about 540,000, compared with more than three times the average in fiscal year 2021. Mexico, Haiti, Venezuela and other Central and South American countries are the main sources of migration.

The BBC said 145,000 unaccompanied children were detained in FY21, a record number. As of Oct. 22, nearly 11,000 children were still in detention, "inside the tents they faced sexual abuse, outbreaks, lice outbreaks, raw food and sandstorms."

According to CNN, the death toll of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border reached 557 in fiscal 2021, the highest since 1998, and the real death toll may be even higher.

In September, photos of U.S. border enforcement officers rounding up Haitian refugees on horseback went viral. At the time, about 15,000 Haitian refugees were camped under a bridge in the Texas border town of Del Rio, ABC said. Refugees wading in search of supplies and sleeping in squalid conditions pose a humanitarian crisis.

Partisan struggles work

On the issue of illegal immigration, the Attitude of the Biden-led Democratic Government and the Trump-led Republican Administration is very different, but the effect is the same.

According to the Wall Street Journal, since April 2018, the previous U.S. government has implemented a "zero tolerance" policy for illegal immigrants, resulting in thousands of children being forcibly separated from their parents. There are no measures to track the location of children and ensure future family reunification. Some children suffer from illness or malnutrition, heat stroke and receive almost no medical treatment.

The BBC said Biden had criticized the previous government as "cruel" and promised to implement "more humane" policies. Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Health are considering paying nearly $1 million in compensation to each separated immigrant family. Some Republicans, however, have criticized the huge compensation scheme as exacerbating the border crisis.

According to the ABC, after the current U.S. administration, the number of illegal border crossings has increased significantly, and the border management department has been caught off guard, resulting in a recurrence of overcrowding in the resettlement camps. In February, when the epidemic was severe, the management even squeezed more than 500 children into tents designed to accommodate 32 people. Today, the Biden administration's border plan has gone from hopeful to chaotic.

Zhang Chunman, an associate researcher at the School of Marxism at Fudan University, told this reporter that out of electoral needs, the democratic and republican parties in the United States have sometimes been tough and sometimes relaxed in their handling of the immigration issue, and this "pendulum attitude" has led the United States to release chaotic policy signals to the outside world. Under the tough policies of the United States, immigrants have plummeted, and under the loose policies, they have traveled long distances and flocked to the US-Mexico border in large numbers, swayed by the erratic rhetoric of both parties.

"In recent years, the U.S. government has lost all points on immigration and has not scored. The two parties never really took the interests of immigrants into account, and ultimately made them victims of partisan struggles in the United States. Zhang Chunman said.

Or it will become more intense

The Washington Post said the U.S. government has plans to resume the controversial "stay in Mexico" policy in the near future. In the two years since january 2019, the policy has left some 68,000 migrants stranded in Mexico.

"Border cities have inadequate management capacity, infrastructure and resources, and a limited population load. The United States has driven a large number of immigrants to the Mexican side, and the most direct impact is to put great pressure on the Mexican government and border cities and communities. Zhang Chunman said, "At this time, if the US government uses the influence of the epidemic to intercept immigrants, it is equivalent to cutting off the way for immigrants to enter the United States." ”

According to NBC, the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security recently announced that the United States will allow legal travelers who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter the United States through the land border between Canada and Mexico. The policy does not apply to undocumented immigrants, leaving nearly 30,000 Haitians who arrived at the Texas border in September excluded from the policy.

Zhang Chunman pointed out that the problem of illegal immigration at the US border has a long history, but it has not been completely resolved for decades, because the United States has always lacked stable policy strength and a clear long-term road map. When there is an emergency, the government often introduces temporary measures to deal with it, which may lead to greater contradictions rather than the root causes.

"Whether the border issue is properly handled or not will have an impact on the image of the United States, the relationship between the United States and Mexico, and the issue of illegal immigration within the border and within the country." Zhang Chunman said, "However, in the context of the current intensification of party struggle, it is difficult to systematically reform the current outdated immigration policy system, and the problem of illegal immigration is destined to become more and more intense in the future." ”