Approaching Societal Change

This subject came to me, while sitting and waiting for a daughter to get her annual checkup prior to school. It reflects the area that I live in - but also the area where many of us live - problems are similar everywhere we look.  Is the Federal Government failing to secure our borders? Is the question that simple, since we are the shining example of self-government to the rest of the world - or at least we like to think we are. I'll have to figure out my thesis statement, but this is the note that I took to myself:

Immigration (refugees) resulting from drug violence in Central American countries feeding a culture in the US that takes care of drug dependent people who may have turned that direction as a result of a failed national drug policy. Wasted resources on marijuana when the real crime lies with over-prescribed pharmaceutical drugs, and failing that homemade bathtub drugs. Combine the above with a health policy that states we will care for these folks because they are poor or uninsured or uninsurable. And should they be unable to work, we will place them upon Social Security Disability and give them Medicaid or Care so we don't have to deal with it ourselves. Yes, these folks are all someone's relative.
Does a solution exist that is consistent with our Constitution, and impacts society great enough to affect change without losing our Democratic principles based upon life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? Are we willing to pursue change that will impact our own daily lives? Are we willing to accept that each one of us, as citizens of these United States, is ultimately responsible for creating the change that must happen in order to ensure that 'and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.'

Before I can continue, I must address that over-prescribed pharmaceutical drugs are designed by, made through, sold with, pushed on, profited by.....

I must also make clear that we took care of the uninsured long before the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) so please, do not try and point a finger and say "that is the cause" It is not.

The humanity of it all. (or) The Humanity of it all?

Turn thee; look upon thy death

or

 

Where doth thy finger point?

 

                I always start my blog post with some personal history – if I can’t tell you why this is so important to me, then I have no reason to believe that you, the reader, should ever endure the pain of reading to the end.

                During my almost 30 year career in the Army, I had the pleasure to serve in Berlin during the Cold War. In fact, I was present when the first part of the Wall began to come down, and as the West German Government began to grapple with the overwhelming amounts of people coming across that border. I witnessed the morass of people walking down the Kurfurstendamm for their first time; the countless smoke belching Trabant’s motoring down the autostrasse causing congestion and confusion the likes of which the West Berliner’s had not dealt with in decades. These people however were not migrants, immigrants, or refugees, however I believe that the Bonn Government did classify them, initially as refugees, allowing for aid and assistance to be provided. These ‘refugees’ of course, were also family to some. Certainly not too all though, the Wall went up in 1961 and this was 1989, a generation had been born, on both sides, that did not have ties to each other. You also had the movement of peoples within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), which was sometimes done to ensure the absolute control of power.

                I have never spent time in a foreign country that was struggling to deal with refugees. I have been present while countries struggled to deal with the displacement of their peoples due to wartime activities. Sarajevo, Bosnia comes to mind, there were sectors that we were not allowed to travel in, that the Bosnian authorities were struggling to render aid to their displaced personnel. I guess this was occurring in Kosovo also, they just dealt with their folks slightly differently. My Son took his Army Signal team to New Orleans, following Hurricane Katrina, and established communications for the Soldiers that were attempting to help out with the people attempting to survive against unsurmountable odds. The news media had a hard time trying to figure out whether they were to be called ‘refugees or evacuees’. Mike Pesca, writing for NPR on September 5, 2005, quoted Civil rights activist Al Sharpton who said, "They are not refugees. They are citizens of the United States."

                So there we have it, before we go on much further though, let us define two terms that are in use by media reporting. For these definitions I have gone to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), which has a global mission of finding, classifying, and aiding refugees. The first term is just that, refugee: - is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or are afraid to do so. War and ethnic, tribal, and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries. The other term, requiring definition, is immigrant, when talking of the US southern border we often are referring to illegal immigrants, but their reason is mainly due to economic reasons, so we’ll use the definition of ‘economic immigrant’ provided, again, by the UNHCR: - normally leaves a country voluntarily to seek a better life. Should he or she decide to return home, they would continue to receive the protection of his or her government. Refugees flee because of the threat of persecution and cannot return safely to their homes.

                Our issue then, according to the news media reporting has to do with 57,000 children, coming to this country, illegally, since October 2013, primarily from the countries of (I quote The Guardian, dtd 12 July for this fact) “because of a dramatic rise in children arriving from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, where murder rates are among the highest in the world and violent gangs are common.” They are coming to America, under the impression that the U.S. is offering legal immigration visas. Randal Archibold, reporting on July 19^th for the New York Times offers this piece;

                Last year, Mexico deported 89,000 Central Americans, including 9,000 children, the bulk of the returnees coming from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, officials have said. In the fiscal year that ended last September, the United States sent back 106,420 from those countries.

                So far this year, Mexico has detained 53 child migrants a day, mostly Central American, double the pace of the same period last year. It has deported more than 30,000 Central Americans so far this year, including more than 14,000 Hondurans, driven home on packed buses at least three times a week.

(The Army’s 11^th Signal Brigade has been deploying signal teams to Honduras, to support Humanitarian Aid efforts for as long as I can recall. When I was with the Brigade in 1995, this was not a new mission, and news reports show that a recent deployment to Honduras just concluded; you can bet that another team is en-route, or preparing to deploy soon.)

Another part of Randal Archibold’s article discusses ‘migrants’ fleeing violence in their own countries, (Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador). I do believe that our definitions above would lead a thinking person to reach the conclusion that these people are not migrants, they are refugees – by definition.

                I hope that we can agree then that the problem we are currently facing, on our southern border, is a refugee crisis. Certainly some untruth out there about ‘legal immigration’ could be having an impact, but look at the numbers that were returned last year! This is not a new problem, so let us take a look at what we have spent on securing our borders, namely since 2001, when ‘securing the borders’ became a catch-phrase of Patriotism that allowed our government to spend almost unrestrictedly.

                I take my values from the Department of Homeland Security’s website (DHS.gov), and did my best to make an educated guess from the budget documents posted. What I was able to determine about our spending, other than it has increased substantially since FY 2001; in fact, in 2001, spending on US Border Security was around $7 billion, if my memory serves right. Following 9/11 approximately $120 billion has been directed towards US Border Security – this number covers FY’s 02-12 appropriations, and does not reflect un-funded spending or that portion of BioShield, whose spending is no longer public. A billion dollars use to buy you quite a bit of stuff, one must wonder exactly what have we gotten for our one-hundred and twenty billion dollars over the past 10 years that still leaves us with this current problem – but, I digress, we’ve already seen that this is not a new problem we are dealing with. Oh, in case that $120 billion didn’t seem to be enough, recall that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created to secure our skies and make air travel so much more…..convenient and safe. They are now on a separate spending line and from FY09-11 have been appropriated approximately $23 million on their own. That number just doesn’t seem to be enough to me, but it did come from the budget documents; maybe it is supposed to be ‘billion’ and I just wrote it down wrong. When it comes to border security it makes me think of potato or potahto; apples and oranges; millions or billions. What it should make us think is, “how are these children refugees getting in?”

                Reuters reported, on Sunday June 29^th of this year, that President Obama was preparing to seek an additional $2 billion from Congress to tackle the child ‘migrant’ problem. Congress was in recess at the time, perhaps a big holiday was coming up? Anyways, we all know that his request of Congress is now at $3.7 billion – where did the extra $1.7 come from, you ask? I do not have the answer to that, although one could guess, knowing the workings of our government and Congress, that an additional amount was included to make it ‘passable’ to different members of Congress. It’s called pork barrel politics, and it will not get us one single step closer to a resolution to this crisis. According to AP reporting, ERICA WERNER and JIM KUHNHENN July 8, 2014 from Washington, ‘The White House said the money would help increase the detention, care and transportation of unaccompanied children, help speed the removal of adults with children by increasing the capacity of immigration courts and increase prosecution of smuggling networks. The money would also increase surveillance at the U.S. border and help Central American countries repatriate border-crossers sent back from the United States.’ The bill that the President announced included a breakdown of costs, as follows:

                $1.1 billion to the Department of Homeland Security to help deter border-crossers and increase enforcement.

                $443 million for Customs and Border Patrol to cover overtime costs and fly more drone aircraft hours.

                $64 million to Department of Justice to hire an additional 40 teams of immigration officials with a Judge (this is in addition to the 35 teams and Judges already requested and not acted upon by Congress)

                $1.8 billion, finally, to the Department of Health and Human Services to care for the unaccompanied children, including shelter and medical.

I’ll not question anyone’s intelligence, so you can do the math on your own. And no, I do not know the answer to the question you are coming up with now (refer to pork barrel politics perhaps?)

I am unable to answer my own next question, which is, “Is this spending going to incur further obligations that must be a recurring line funded in future budgets?” It’s really a stupid question - when was the last time Congress said, “We don’t need this money anymore, here, please return it to the people.” Asked and answered is how Lawyers and Judges refer to it, I believe.

                I’m still confused about this whole problem though. I mean, why would parents expose their children to such risks, that they would send them off on a perilous journey, across multiple countries, in order to cross into America. Why not just use the established legal channels for refugees, that the U.S. State Department has available on its website instructional pamphlet. The mission of the U.S. State Department, after all, is:

                Promoting freedom and democracy and protecting human rights around the world are central to U.S. foreign policy. The values captured in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in other global and regional commitments are consistent with the values upon which the United States was founded centuries ago. The United States supports those persons who long to live in freedom and under democratic governments that protect universally accepted human rights. The United States uses a wide range of tools to advance a freedom agenda, including bilateral diplomacy, multilateral engagement, foreign assistance, reporting and public outreach, and economic sanctions. The United States is committed to working with democratic partners, international and regional organizations, non-governmental organizations, and engaged citizens to support those seeking freedom.

                The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor leads the U.S. efforts to promote democracy, protect human rights and international religious freedom, and advance labor rights globally.

 Here is an introduction to the State Departments policy on Refugee Resettlement:

Planning for Refugees’ Arrival in the United States

The Department of State works with nine domestic resettlement agencies that have proven knowledge and resources to resettle refugees. Every week, representatives of each of these nine agencies meet to review the biographic information and other case records sent by the overseas Resettlement Support Centers (RSC) to determine where a refugee will be resettled in the United States. During this meeting, the resettlement agencies match the particular needs of each incoming refugee with the specific resources available in a local community. If a refugee has relatives in the United States, he or she is likely to be resettled near or with them. Otherwise, the resettlement agency that agrees to sponsor the case decides on the best match between a community’s resources and the refugee’s needs.

Information about the sponsoring agency is communicated back to the originating RSC, which then works with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to transport the refugee to his or her new home. The cost of refugee transportation is provided as a loan, which refugees are required to begin repaying after they are established in the United States.

                I think I’m starting to understand exactly where the problem lies – the refugee must pay back all costs associated with the movement and resettlement…..this isn’t about humane treatment of all peoples, this is about the financial bottom line, plain and simple, after all, this is a Democracy that is based upon a free-market economy with minimal government intervention, well, except when that intervention results in a loan that can be recouped, with interest, of course. Again, I find myself off-course. The fact is, that there is a process - not a quick one, but a process nonetheless, by which affected peoples may apply for refugee status in the United States. I’m not sure about you all, but if I was fleeing violence and murder and persecution or war, I may not be willing to wait around for the ‘process’ to take its course. Additionally, if I could somehow work to ensure the safety of my children, during these times of ‘mayhem’, I would, I would a million, billion times over, and still I would.

 

                There is a song, sung by Willie Nelson, and released in February 1986, it’s called “Living in the Promiseland.” I’m reminded of one part of that song, as I’ve watched the media and various social media postings over the past couple of weeks.

We are the multitudes
Lend us a helping hand
Is there no love anymore
Living in the Promiseland

                We spent over $120 billion on border security since 2002; we spent $1.7 trillion in Iraq, untold more dollars in Afghanistan (one website said over $7 trillion in Afghanistan alone). We travel the globe talking about humane treatment of all peoples as a ‘natural right’ that should be provided to all people. Is every person that enters the United States, as a refugee or an immigrant, legal or illegal, always going to be law-abiding and contribute as a member of our society? I believe the answer to that question to be No. When Al Sharpton said they aren’t refugees, they are Citizens of the United States, aren’t we glad he made that clear in the days following, during the looting, burning, murdering, raping and pillaging that went on – we should be proud that there wasn’t a refugee problem in New Orleans following Katrina. The only thing that I can truly conclude from this blog post is that perhaps we are pointing the finger in the wrong direction. Perhaps a little reflection on what exactly it is that we stand for is called for. I don’t believe that we need to re-write the Constitution in order to do that, and I don’t think that the U.S. Supreme Court needs to weigh in on any decisions either. There is one other possibility that comes to mind. How about instead of concentrating on Iraq and Afghanistan (one for oil - that we didn't get; and the other for.....I don't know) we concentrate a whole lot more on Central America. Why don't we do more to solve the crisis at the root; let's turn a little more of our diplomacy down that direction, after all, they are connected to us. We do co-exist on the same continent.

 

                We are talking about 57,000 children; we are talking about refugees, we are talking about crisis and human rights and humane treatment; that is exactly what we are talking about.

 

“Give us your tired and weak, and we will make them strong.”