The News & Topicality Thread

[Jocose]

https://x.com/wideawake_media/status/17 ... 90426?s=20

When Klaus Schwab's mentor, the late Henry Kissinger, says it was "a grave mistake" to import so many people of totally different cultures and religions into the West, because of the tensions that arise as a result of that, you can be absolutely certain that this was the plan all along.

If "divide and conquer" wasn't such an effective strategy, globalists wouldn't employ it so extensively.

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Source: Catholic Telegraph / OSV News
Link: thecatholictelegraph DOT com/heres-what-border-bishops-think-about-the-migrant-crisis/94169

Here’s what ‘border bishops’ think about the migrant crisis

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Baltimore, MD — Several Texas bishops are expressing grave concern about the ongoing migrant crisis and are underscoring the need for “comprehensive immigration reform” as the situation is untenable for their dioceses.

More than 2.5 million illegal immigrants crossed the southern border last year. Texas, which shares a border with four different Mexican states and makes up well over half of the total U.S.–Mexico borderline, has borne the brunt of the ongoing migrant crisis.

The Texas bishops shared their concerns with CNA during the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Plenary Assembly, which took place Nov. 13–16 in Baltimore.

While the bishops expressed different views about what exactly should be done, all said that the current U.S. immigration system is broken and has been causing incredible damage to the region and the lives of the migrants.

Here’s what the Texas bishops CNA spoke with had to say:

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Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Archdiocese of Galveston–Houston

“This is not fair, or just, or right,” Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of the Archdiocese of Galveston–Houston told CNA.

DiNardo said that “the immigration problem is affecting the state so intensely” and that the migrants themselves are often the ones who suffer the most.

“We have a completely distraught system of immigration. It’s not functioning right, so all kinds of horrors happen because of it,” DiNardo said. “Every other week, there’s a house or something in Houston, they open up and find 30 undocumented immigrants there in various stages of being enslaved.”

[…]

Though he said that he has “nothing but respect for our border agents,” who “process people as well as they can,” he said that there are days he believes the cartels “run what goes on at the border” and that “they’re in charge.”

DiNardo said that the cartels and traffickers “need to be dealt with” and that measures against them need to be “stern.”

[…]

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Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller, Archdiocese of San Antonio

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio told CNA that while every country “has a right to have secure borders,” what’s missing in the country’s immigration system is the recognition that migrants “are human people” and “have human dignity.”

[…]

Central to reforming the immigration system, García-Siller said, is helping to alleviate the causes leading people to leave their home countries in the first place.

García-Siller said the border issue has become so politically charged because rather than Christianity or the social doctrine of the Church, “politics is directing almost every area of our society, including the conscience of our people.”

[…]

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Bishop Mark Seitz, Diocese of El Paso

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso also holds the influential role of chair of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, which makes the bishops’ official policy recommendations to send to Congress and the president.

“Our Holy Father has pointed out that we bishops need to be involved in immigration,” Seitz said. “And from what I hear from my brother bishops, I think there’s great interest in the topic and tremendous support for the responsibility we have as a Church to care for immigrants.”

[…]

Despite the numbers [arriving], Seitz has advocated for more lenient border policies, criticizing recent decisions made by the Biden administration to implement certain restrictions, some of which were originally imposed under the Trump administration.

To Seitz, comprehensive immigration reform involves establishing “a more orderly system” in which “there are clear lines” and “people are carefully vetted.” He also believes reform needs to be aimed at helping alleviate the root causes of mass migration.

“We as a nation, the United States, have a responsibility, certainly as Christians, but even as a nation, one can see where we have a moral responsibility to do what we can to assist those sending countries to overcome some of the things that are causing this instability and to do it in a way that respects the rights of the people there,” he said.

[…]

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Bishop James Tamayo, Diocese of Laredo

Bishop James Tamayo of Laredo, a city with a population that is over 95% Hispanic, said that migrants’ “concerns and their realities are something that can’t wait.”

[…]

Though Tamayo said that he understands many people are fearful about the record numbers crossing the border, he said that “in the Diocese of Laredo, I’ve always reminded our people [to] look at your ancestors and where did they come from? Where are your cultural roots, and then what have they contributed?”

“Look at the way we live today. Look at our society that we’re living in. Who built this up? What gave you the opportunities? It was those same immigrants that settled here that cared not only for their family and themselves, but for the community, and it opened up doors for all of us.”

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Bishop Michael Olson, Diocese of Fort Worth

“At the heart of it,” said Bishop Michael Olson of Fort Worth, “is compassion, but also a sense of justice.”

“You can’t talk about the migration and refugee problem without talking about human trafficking,” he said, explaining that his diocese sits right amid “the main thoroughfare for human trafficking.”

Though Olson said that his diocese has worked extensively to help protect unaccompanied migrant children from trafficking by reuniting them with their parents, he believes that the first step to solving the issue is ensuring that there is a secure border.

“We need a sound border,” he said. “The Holy Father spoke to us [Texas bishops] … and he said: ‘Where the devil is most active today is in human trafficking, this slavery, this trade.’”

“We have to hold ourselves accountable and politicians accountable because there’s been no incentive for politicians from either party to make legitimate changes,” he explained.

“The Church is very pro-immigrant, especially here in the United States,” he went on. “The problem is, without a border and without a clear process, we can’t serve anybody.”

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Source: Crux
Link: cruxnow DOT com/church-in-the-americas/2023/12/central-american-bishops-warn-of-unprecedented-migration-crisis

Central American bishops warn of ‘unprecedented’ migration crisis

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SÃO PAULO, Brazil — With an unprecedented rise in 2023 in the number of immigrants crossing Central America in an effort to reach the United States and Canada, the bishops of the region are urging local governments to establish adequate programs to deal with them and to ensure their safety.

The migration crisis was the main concern of prelates gathered in Guatemala Nov. 27–30 for the Episcopal Secretariat of Central America’s annual assembly. In their final document, released on the last day of the encounter, the bishops emphasized that Central American nations are not properly addressing the problem.

“We notice the growing vitality of the human mobility pastoral ministries of our churches, as opposed to the ineffectiveness of the government programs, totally conditioned by state policies that define migrants as a danger to security,” the declaration read.

The letter defined the “migration drama” as a “cry which is not sufficiently heard,” and mentioned the migrant caravans of “unemployed youth, whose lives are endangered by violence.”

“Many of them [end up] criminalized in detention centers and in the uncertainty regarding their future. They are heroes of our countries’ economies, sending revenues earned in environments of underemployment and grave deprivation,” the Central American bishops said.

Bishop Javier Román Arias of Limón, Costa Rica, told Crux that the migration crisis, along with the region’s economic, environmental, and social challenges, appeared in the presentations of all delegations that took part in the assembly.

“There are particularly complex situations going on on the borders between Panama and Costa Rica and Guatemala and Mexico. Honduras keeps being one of the main sources of immigrant youth in the region,” Arias said.

Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Blanco of San José, Costa Rica, who is in charge of the country’s commission on human mobility, told Crux that the Central American episcopate “is aware of the immigrant crisis in the region and has been continually working to attend to the needs of the travelers.”

“All over the region, the church accompanies the immigrants in the cities and on the roads. Dioceses and congregations have welcome centers to give them temporary shelter and legal assistance offices to help them obtain documents,” Blanco affirmed.

Venezuelans, Haitians, and Ecuadorians continue to make up the majority of the immigrants heading north from Colombia, “but there are people of more than 30 nationalities getting into Panama every month, including brothers and sisters from Africa and Asia,” he explained.

“The crossing of the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama [a wildforest region with several criminal gangs] is one of the most dangerous routes for immigrants in the world,” Blanco said.

[…]

“Last month, Costa Rica decreed a state of emergency due to migration, something that enables the government to more easily allocate funds to the necessary programs,” Blanco said.

Father Gustavo Meneses, in charge of the Mesoamerican and Caribbean Socio-Pastoral Observatory of Human Mobility (known as OSMECA in Spanish), told Crux that around 500,000 immigrants crossed the Darien Gap in 2023. According to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, 82,000 people got into Panama in August alone.

“Those people are being really expelled from their countries due to harsh socioeconomic circumstances. People leave because they cannot find dignified living conditions,” he said.

The Church has been among the most active social organizations dealing with the problem. It receives support from UN’s branches that work with children, immigrants, and refugees, but also uses its own resources to do so.

“The Church’s financial situation is very difficult now. Most of the donations come from local dioceses and parishes,” he said.

Catholic centers for immigrants depend on the work of volunteers. According to Meneses, there are very well-established Church groups of lay people in all Central American nations working with immigrants.

“But that’s a rather demanding task. That’s why the bishops discussed during the assembly last week a way of offering help to the volunteers, including psychological attention,” he added.

Meneses said that the Central American episcopate plans to release a pastoral letter about immigration in 2024. It is part of an effort to denounce the crisis to society and increase the pressure on the local governments.

“We plan to promote gatherings between communities in Central America and the ones where immigrants live in the United States in order to increase awareness on the crisis. We also want to reach out to politicians, both in the region and in the United States,” Meneses said.

[Del]

+JMJ+

Source: Crux
Link: cruxnow DOT com/church-in-the-americas/2023/12/central-american-bishops-warn-of-unprecedented-migration-crisis

Central American bishops warn of ‘unprecedented’ migration crisis

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This humanitarian crisis and mass suffering is caused by the borderless migration policy that you support. You have the policy you wanted, and this is the result.

What are you going to do about it, Wosbald? What do you expect us to do about it?

We already tolerate an intolerable levels of crime, poverty, homelessness, and threats of terrorism. We are allowing the rapes, kidnappings, extortion, and violence to vulnerable migrants that are caused by Democrat policies. What more do you want from us?

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Source: Atlantic
Link: theatlantic DOT com/ideas/archive/2023/12/anti-semitism-israel-gaza-celebrity-statements/676232

How to Be Anti-Semitic and Get Away With It [Explainer, Analysis]

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Too many communities have developed ways to excuse or otherwise ignore prejudice.

DECEMBER 5, 2023 — Out of 8 billion people on the planet, there are only 16 million Jews — but far, far more anti-Semites. I sometimes joke that if I had fewer scruples, I wouldn’t report on anti-Jewish prejudice; I’d contract myself out to the more numerous and better-resourced bigots, and help them get away with it. Because in more than a decade covering anti-Semitism, I have become a reluctant expert in all the ways that anti-Jewish activists obfuscate their hate.

People must learn to recognize and reject these tactics, because too many communities have developed ways to excuse or otherwise ignore anti-Semitism. Today, such prejudice is growing in high and low places because powerful people around the world are running the same playbook to launder their hate into the public sphere.

Here’s how they do it:

1. They become too big to fail. Over the past six months, Elon Musk has publicly affirmed the deadliest anti-Semitic conspiracy theory in recent American history, claimed that Jews and Jewish organizations cause anti-Semitism, and echoed extremist conspiracy theories about the Jewish financier George Soros. As a result, the billionaire has lost a few advertisers on his social-media platform, and even got rapped by the White House. But as The New York Times reported, even as the U.S. government criticized Musk, it continued to buy things from him.

In fact, in recent months, Musk has raked in Pentagon cash, including more than $1 billion in exchange for launching spy satellites and other intelligence assets into orbit through his lucrative space-exploration venture, SpaceX. In September, days after Musk attacked the Anti-Defamation League and suggested that Jews cause anti-Semitism, he met with a bipartisan group of senators to discuss artificial intelligence. The magnate subsequently signed a deal worth up to $70 million to provide the U.S. government with a secure satellite communications system. “Rarely has the U.S. government so depended on the technology provided by a single technologist,” the Times wrote. Meanwhile, diverse actors ranging from the ADL to Representative Ilhan Omar keep advertising on Musk’s social-media site, his rich friends continue to defend him, and, last week, he was featured at a Times event.

Musk has similarly been wooed by Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government, who — like Ukraine’s leadership — want to stay on the entrepreneur’s good side so that he doesn’t use technology like his Starlink satellite internet to harm their war efforts. Precisely because Musk plays a leading role in so many industries that are essential to humanity’s future — electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, space technology — no country can quit him, not even one as powerful as the United States or as Jewish as Israel. Likewise, no matter how many dinners Donald Trump has with anti-Semites such as Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Holocaust deniers such as Nick Fuentes, he will not be penalized for it by Republicans, because he is too essential to their party to be discarded.

This characteristic is what separates the big-league bigots who get away with it from those who don’t. Ye’s mistake was that he invested his talents in producing music and sneakers rather than something more indispensable to human flourishing, such as precision-guided ballistic missiles.

2. They don’t say the quiet part out loud. Those who want to fulminate about the Jews but lack the singular clout of Elon Musk still have plenty of options. They just need to be slightly more subtle about their prejudice. Take Tucker Carlson, once the most-watched man on cable news, who used his show to popularize a sanitized version of the same “Great Replacement” theory that Musk recently endorsed, which posits that Jewish elites are plotting to supplant the white race through the mass immigration of brown people. This white-supremacist fantasy motivated the 2018 massacre of worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, among other recent attacks. How did Carlson get such an unhinged idea on television? He repeated the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory — “They’re trying to change the population of the United States, and they hate it when you say that because it’s true, but that’s exactly what they’re doing” — but left out the word Jews and let the audience fill in the blank.

This time-honored technique provides even the most pointed prejudice with plausible deniability. In particular, whenever you see politicians or celebrities darkly ruminating about an amorphous “they” covertly controlling events, chances are good that you are seeing this strategy in action. Consider Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has led Turkey, a member of NATO, since 2003. In 2014, he began darkly referring to a “mastermind” behind the country’s ills:

Don’t be misled. Don’t think that these operations are against my persona, our government, our party. Friends, these operations are rather directed against Turkey itself — its unity, its peace, its economy, its independence. And as I have said before, behind all these steps there is a mastermind. People ask me, “Who is this mastermind?” Well, you have to figure that out. And actually, you know what it is.

Erdoğan was not talking about the Amish. His allies subsequently produced a movie titled The Mastermind, which aired on pro-government TV stations and helpfully opened with an image of a Star of David. “At every stage,” the Turkish commentator Mustafa Akyol wrote at the time, “the film reminds us how the Judaic ‘mastermind’ has oppressed humanity for thousands of years.” As Erdoğan has consolidated his essentially unchecked power, he has become more forthright in his anti-Semitism, and faced no international consequences.

3. They replace Jew with Zionist. In 1934, Representative Louis McFadden of Pennsylvania took to the floor of Congress to complain about Jewish control of the American financial system. “Is it not true,” he bemoaned, “that, in the United States today, the gentiles have the slips of paper while the Jews have the gold?” Today, this sort of rhetoric is frowned upon in polite society, but aspiring anti-Semites have a work-around: substituting each instance of Jews with Zionists or Israelis. Then: The Jews control the world. Now: The Zionists control the world.

With this simple switch, prejudice magically becomes mere criticism of Israel. Social-media companies won’t moderate it, and many activists will defend it. People can even make their anti-Semitic argument live on CNN, as Pakistan’s foreign minister did in 2021, when he claimed that Israel controls the media. In this manner, an ancient conspiracy theory is updated to appeal to partisans in the 21st century, many of whom will insist that they don’t have an anti-Semitic bone in their body. Of course, Zionism warrants critique like any other political ideology, but conspiracism is not criticism. This is what Martin Luther King Jr. was referring to when he said, “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism.”

One person who has mastered this maneuver is the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, the man responsible for the most anti-Jewish violence in the world today. …

4. They say they were just “supporting Palestine.” Earlier this month, the actor Susan Sarandon was dropped by her talent agency. It was a mostly symbolic gesture, because the celebrated performer continues to get work and others will be happy to represent her. But almost immediately, viral posts on social media viewed more than 50 million times claimed that she had been punished for her pro-Palestinian advocacy. This popular narrative had only one small flaw: It was false.

[…]

Sarandon apologized on Friday, two weeks after her original statement. But the sleight of hand others used to defend her — in which apologetics for anti-Jewish violence are disingenuously recast as Palestinian advocacy — is endemic to our current discourse. Last month, an activist told a public-radio journalist that he’d been receiving “50 hate calls an hour” over a pro-Palestinian speech he delivered at an October 8 rally. But what he actually did was explicitly cheer the murder of civilians and declare, “I salute Hamas — a job well done.” This fact appeared nowhere in the published story, which said only that he “spoke in support of Palestine.”

Pro-Palestinian activism is not the same as anti-Semitism, which is why it’s important that when people say bigoted things about Jews or support violence against them, their words should not be conflated with Palestinian advocacy. But unfortunately, too many anti-Semites wrap themselves in the Palestinian cause, and too many partisans are happy to let them do so. This does not help any Palestinians, as it tends to tar their cause with prejudice, but it does insulate a fair number of anti-Semites from the consequences of their words or actions. That’s why in recent weeks, many bigots have attempted to use the Palestinian plight as their alibi, vandalizing Jewish institutions around the world, including synagogues and kosher restaurants, with “Free Palestine” and related slogans.

∗∗∗

Every community has biases — toward the rich and powerful, toward ideological allies — that lead it to excuse bad behavior it would otherwise repudiate. But such excuses for prejudice work only because we allow them to. Covert anti-Semitism tends to turn into overt anti-Semitism. Until we start seriously confronting the former, we can expect more of the latter.

[Del]

The Queen of Cringe is back!!!

Hillary Clinton To Take Larger Role In Biden’s Re-Election Campaign — And Even Democrats Are Laughing

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Source: America
Link: americamagazine DOT org/politics-society/2023/12/20/texas-immigration-laws-abbott-246776

Catholic leaders denounce latest Texas immigration laws as ‘inhumane’ and ‘immoral’

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Dec 20, 2023 — This week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed three bills into law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration in the state, funding more border security initiatives and making illegal border crossings a state crime.

Local law enforcement can now arrest migrants who cross the border illegally and local judges can order them to leave the country, The Associated Press reports. Additionally, the Texas legislature has allocated $1.54 billion more to border security.

Mr. Abbott predicted the number of people crossing illegally into Texas would drop by “well over 50 percent, maybe 75 percent,” though he did not offer evidence for that estimate. “The consequences of it are so extreme that the people being smuggled by the cartels, they will not want to be coming into the state of Texas,” he said.

But Dylan Corbett, the executive director of the Hope Border Institute, called the measure “inhumane, immoral and unconstitutional.”

“Its only aim is to criminalize people seeking safety at the border and instill fear in families throughout Texas,” he said. “It will disastrously make every Texan less safe by eroding fundamental community trust with law enforcement. The Biden administration needs to take immediate action to stop this and every action being taken by Governor Abbott to weaponize our border and cynically deploy our peace officers against the vulnerable.”

Melissa Lopez, the executive director of El Paso’s Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services, said in a statement that Texas “continues its assault on people of color.”

“The law is unconstitutional, inhumane, and an overly broad encroachment of federal immigration authority,” Ms. Lopez said. “The State’s assault on migrants has resulted in far too many deaths. Countless people will lose their lives, end up in jail, and be deported before legal challenges invalidate the law. The enforcement of this law will come at the expense of human dignity and human rights. The State of Texas is undertaking more and more dangerous tactics at every turn with no sign of letting up. We must protect anyone impacted or affected by S.B. 4. We must ensure they have access to legal representation, understand their rights, and know how to assert them when confronted by law enforcement.”

While the law is scheduled to go into effect this March, experts expect it to face challenges in court.

[…]

Jennifer Allmon, the executive director of the Texas bishops’ conference, called the legislation “grossly imprudent” and said it “could have deadly consequences for innocent migrants.”

The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops has supported the church’s teaching on immigration in the state. With respect to the latest developments, the conference pointed to expert testimony offered earlier last month by Justin Estep, the senior director of Immigration and Refugee Services at Catholic Charities of Central Texas.

“We understand the situation at the border has become untenable, but H.B. 4 is not the solution,” Mr. Estep said. “The church will continue to work with civic leaders, especially our Texas legislators, to uphold the rights and dignity of every person and to foster the common good.”

[…]

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Source: America
Link: americamagazine DOT org/politics-society/2023/12/20/immigration-border-security-ukraine-aid-246756

Migrants are not ‘just another story’ — or just another political football [Analysis, Opinion]

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Dec 20, 2023 — …

[…]

[J]ournalists and politicians certainly do exploit [migrants]. Perhaps the clearest example of late is the media frenzy that surrounded the busing of immigrants from border states run by Republican governors to major cities run by Democrats. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, known for his controversial border enforcement tactics, recently announced on social media that he would continue busing migrants to “sanctuary cities.” This week, Mr. Abbott signed a number of immigration measures into law, including one that would make it a state crime to cross the border illegally — a law that is certain to be challenged in court on the grounds that immigration law is a federal responsibility.

At the national level, Republican leaders in Congress continue to exploit the issue to score points with their base. Republicans have continued to withhold support for President Biden’s request for emergency funding in Ukraine until the administration funds better border security and enacts asylum restrictions. The Biden administration has reportedly signaled its openness to the Republicans’ asylum restrictions, angering immigration advocates.

In their most recent proposal, Senate Republicans went so far as to describe asylum as the “top” loophole that “pulls” asylum seekers to the United States. This is absurd. It should be obvious, but I will spell it out: U.S. policy at the border does not create the need for asylum. The need for asylum begins in the home countries of those who arrive at our border.

For years, journalists have documented violence in Latin America. Catholic humanitarian groups like Jesuit Refugee Service, the Hope Border Institute, the Kino Border Initiative and the Scalabrini fathers have accompanied migrants for decades and can attest to the veracity of the reports. While they guard a quiet hope, the migrants who journey north lead lives of great suffering. I have interviewed many migrants on the border who were fleeing for their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

These migrants are not familiar with the nuances and subtleties of U.S. asylum policy. They are not looking for loopholes but for a place to simply exist.

[…]

The notion that the flow of migrants will be stemmed by closing asylum “loopholes” is grotesque. After so many years of tolerating this broken system, it’s hard to believe anyone in Congress actually sees migrants as human beings. Our legislators’ actions — or lack thereof — speak volumes. Leaders of one party prey on voters’ xenophobic tendencies while the other refuses to act, judging pro-immigrant measures too great a political risk.

To be sure, this is not a recent problem. In his 2013 autobiography, former Arizona state Senator Alfredo Gutierrez writes about his father, who, despite being an American citizen, was deported in 1932. Mr. Gutierrez, a Democrat and longtime immigrant advocate, openly criticized President Obama’s immigration policies, including the historic number of deportations carried out during his administration.

A number of advocates have shared with me their frustration with both parties in terms of immigration reform. They feel powerless against the “immigration industrial complex,” a phrase that refers to the private and public entities — like private detention centers and immigration law enforcement — that benefit from the ongoing anti-immigrant rhetoric. Like abortion, immigration has become a convenient problem for political punditry. Fanning partisan fervor displaces any discussion of lasting solutions and realistic compromises.

Instead, the focus remains squarely on the physical border, and not on the factors pushing migrants north. In the longer term, U.S. foreign policy could empower Latin American countries to address poverty, corruption and violence, which may not only reduce the flow of immigrants, but more importantly allow them to find a dignified life in their native lands. In 2021, President Biden vowed to invest $4 billion in Central America, and those plans are now being implemented. Yet beyond financial support, U.S. leaders must hold these countries accountable for how the funds are used.

Such efforts will take years to bear fruit, and while perhaps fewer in number, Latin Americans will continue to migrate to the United States. In the short term, opening more legal paths to migrants and asylum seekers can alleviate the crisis at the border. America has always been, and will continue to be, a nation of immigrants. Our government leaders are not called to put an end to migration, but to effectively regulate migration to accommodate new arrivals. After all, as the Catholic Church has long taught, human beings have a right to migrate.

“Lawmakers are attempting to hold foreign aid hostage in exchange for lasting damage to deeply enshrined humanitarian protections. These extreme proposals are not serious solutions and no policymaker should accept them,” Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute, said in a recent statement about the Senate Republicans’ proposal. “Immigrants are not political pawns and cannot be held as ransom in any negotiation whatsoever.”

Mr. Corbett is right. Leaders in Washington cannot continue to delay overhauling a collapsed immigration system that has tormented countless families on the border and beyond. The latest half measures are but another example of how our political rhetoric undercuts the dignity of the human beings who arrive at our southern border. Unless our political leaders recognize the common humanity we share with migrants and asylum seekers, the immigration crisis will continue.

[Del]

Record Set For Southern Border Encounters In One Month As Nearly 250,000 Cross Into U.S.

A full 242,418 enforcement encounters were reported on the southern border in November of fiscal year (FY) 2024 while a total of 308,728 encounters were reported by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) nationwide during the month.

I recall, not all that long ago, when 11,000 illegal border crossings in one month was a record-level cause for concern.

I'm pretty sure that I saw a headline once reporting a new record of 3000 illegal entries, but that might have been for just one week.

We were not yet calling it 'humanitarian crisis' at that time. Rather, Chicago and New York and San Francisco were signaling their virtue as as newly declared Sanctuary Cities.

Meanwhile, they keep coming...

Massive Migrant Caravan Marches Toward U.S. As Top Biden Officials Meet With Mexican President

A migrant caravan of nearly 8,000 people is marching toward the U.S. southern border as Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas are set to meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico City on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing border crisis.
...
Most of the migrants in the caravan are from Central America, Cuba, Venezuela, and Haiti, but according to Luis García Villagrán, who helped organize the caravan, some of the migrants are from Iran, Turkey, Syria, and Cameroon. Villagrán also projected that the caravan could grow up to 15,000 people by the time it reaches the U.S.-Mexico border, the New York Post reported.
...
An estimated 8 million illegal immigrants have been apprehended by border patrol agents since Biden’s inauguration in January of 2021, and there have been approximately 1.7 million illegal immigrant gotaways under Biden’s watch.

[Jocose]

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1740779894538457175?s=20


To give you a sense of the immense and growing size of illegal immigration!

Since August, there are officially more arriving each month than there are children being born to American mothers.

And these are just the official encounters -- we don't know how many avoided detection.