{"id":25521,"date":"2023-12-31T20:13:49","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T01:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/?p=25521"},"modified":"2024-01-02T23:25:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T04:25:20","slug":"steve-eckstrand-on-making-migrants-wait-in-mexico-is-not-a-good-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/steve-eckstrand-on-making-migrants-wait-in-mexico-is-not-a-good-solution\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Eckstrand on “Making migrants wait in Mexico is not a good solution”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There were many common-sense ideas in the Dec. 20 editorial \u201cA grand bargain on Ukraine and immigration<\/a>,\u201d but requiring migrants to wait in a third country is cruel and makes no sense. \u201cThird country\u201d presumably means Mexico, and the evidence is clear that Mexico is not a safe place for migrants to wait.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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From January 2021 to December 2022,\u00a0Human Rights First tracked<\/a>\u00a0at least 13,480 reports of murder, kidnapping, rape, torture and other violent attacks against people blocked or expelled to Mexico under Title 42. In March 2023,\u00a0a fire at a migrant center in Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez<\/a>\u00a0killed at least 38 people. Finally, between the time the asylum ban took effect in mid-May and the end of November,\u00a0Human Rights First found<\/a>\u00a0that more than 1,300 migrants faced kidnapping, torture, rape, extortion and other violence while waiting in Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The premise that Mexico can accommodate tens to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers while they wait for their cases to be adjudicated is false. The gross domestic product of Mexico is 1\/18 that of the United States, and it accepted more than 200,000 refugees in the past three years. It simply does not have the resources to do more.<\/p>\n

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Furthermore, a grand bargain should do more. Asylum processing should be properly supported so that claims are handled fairly and expeditiously. Regulatory barriers that hinder asylum seekers from obtaining work authorization in a timely manner, particularly the 180-day waiting period, should be eliminated. That would ease the financial burden on the cities that are hosting migrants. A grand bargain should include proposals that Congress has been considering for years, such as the Dream Act, the Afghan Adjustment Act and the Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ideally, our immigration system should be fixed holistically, but a bipartisan grand bargain that included at least these elements would be a significant step.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Stephen Eckstrand<\/b>,\u00a0Frederick, Maryland<\/i><\/p>\n

Co-convener, Immigration Action Team, UUSJ<\/p>\n

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Note: this item was originally published in the Washington Post: Opinion: Making migrants wait in Mexico is not a good solution<\/a>, December 29, 2023, print and online versions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were many common-sense ideas in the Dec. 20 editorial \u201cA grand bargain on Ukraine and immigration,\u201d but requiring migrants to wait in a third country is cruel and makes no sense. \u201cThird country\u201d presumably means Mexico, and the evidence is clear that Mexico is not a safe place for migrants to wait. From January … Continue reading Steve Eckstrand on “Making migrants wait in Mexico is not a good solution”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1313,1010,73,1971,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-featured-news","category-immigration","category-immigration-justice","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25521"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25525,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25521\/revisions\/25525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uusj.net\/wp1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}