There are about 700,000 ethnic Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar and now live in camps in Bangladesh. They were driven out of Myanmar by soldiers who burned their villages. They committed no crimes. They spoke another language and followed different customs. Some of the people in the world have no desire to treat others as they would want to be treated. My way or the highway is their principle. Bangladesh is one third the size of California and has four times as many people. The refugee camps are muddy during the monsoon season. The Rohingya people have to be extremely desperate to go there.
People who live near the border of the U.S. with Canada pass freely back and forth.
Crossing the border at a customs station usually takes five or ten minutes. Canadians are very similar to us. Plus it is possible to see friends, or relatives there, shop, receive medical care or prescriptions, or take advantage of marijuana being legal to the north. There is no language barrier except in Quebec. Canada has accepted many more refugees than the US.
It is easy for residents of the US to go south into Mexico. Many of the same reasons also apply for those crossing in Tijuana, Otay, El Paso, Brownsville. Many Americans living near the border speak at least some Spanish. It is not the same returning to the US. Lines are much longer especially in San Ysidro. Mexicans also head north to come here and shop, go to restaurants, work here in many jobs, and even on occasion date a gringo. Rents and prices are cheaper in Mexico. There are Americans who live in TJ and commute to work here. Politicians who live far away have suggested closing the border. Yet every state in the US has some Hispanics living and working there. Only a tiny percentage commit crimes here.
The economy of Mexico has improved somewhat in the last 20 years. The number of Mexicans crossing over illegally to find work in the US has dropped. However conditions for many of the people living in Central American countries are almost as dire as it is for the Rohingya in another part of the world. The children of families in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are often recruited by gangs. The parents frequent pay bribes to underpaid police and government officials. The people who flee through Mexico to make it to the US have a long arduous trip. Mexico doesn’t want them though it does absorb some before they make it to our border.
It is usually the case that those who make the trip pay the modest amount of money they have to coyotes who charge as much as they can from the refugees. Sometimes they travel in groups or caravans for safety. Then if they make it all the way and have a genuine need for asylum because they have a long wait to see a judge. The back log now is 800,00 cases. It costs a lot of money for the border patrol, judges, ICE, facilities to keep immigrants and asylum seekers housed, and fed. Now many are told to wait in Mexico until it is time to process their case. Oh what a complicated web we weave in many places, and in many ways. The inscription on the Statue of Liberty about giving us your tired, poor, and hungry is now a cause for regret in one political party. Ni modo.
Deuel Woodward resides in Chula Vista.
