The bureaucratic knife fight over immigration continues in and between Congress and the Biden Administration — and the state of Texas, which this month audaciously conferred upon itself federal immigration enforcement powers which will, like so many other moves that razor-wire-wielding state government has made, produce fine political theater and crummy policy and outcomes.
In the meantime, on the Arizona-Sonora border, lives are in the balance.
A surge in asylum seekers has created a desperate situation. To call it a “humanitarian crisis” somehow devalues the slow-motion tragedy that plays out every day for migrants in the Arizona-Sonora desert, but it certainly meets the definition of one.
The CBP has reacted by closing the normally busy Lukeville border station to divert agents to deal with the surge as it plays out elsewhere — partially, at a spot 10 miles or so east of cartel-plagued Sásabe, where hundreds of migrants have arrived in recent days.
Closing the Lukeville station is an inconvenience for Tucsonans who want to hit the beach at Rocky Point, yes. But it’s much more than that. It affects business and trade, and the communities on both sides of the border that depend on the ability to cross in an orderly fashion at a convenient location.
With an annual budget exceeding $17 billion, it is not unreasonable to expect U.S. Customs and Border Protection to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. The politics of immigration should not be allowed to cause paralysis. But that is exactly what has happened.
The issues here are much larger than Lukeville. They have to do with the fact that despite outsized budgets for “enforcement” and border wall-building, not enough has been added to the asylum adjudication system. With a backlog now exceeding three million cases, the legal infrastructure necessary to process asylum claims has descended into chaos — largely because politics has ruled over process in every aspect of our difficult immigration situation.
That situation has been much exacerbated by world events and the impact of technology. A decade ago, most of the asylum-seekers in the “unaccompanied minors” surge were Central Americans fleeing gang violence. There are still some, but now they are joined by asylum seekers, and those seeking the economic promise the United States offers, from everywhere in the world — China, Russia, Africa, South America. Part of the reason: Technology, cheap air travel and the internet have “taken the friction out” of traveling long distances to seek economic or safety benefits, according to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council.
The surges a decade ago, and a decade before that, gave us fair warning that our system is, if not broken, insufficient to the task of handling such huge human migration to our borders. It’s a warning we have largely disregarded.
Even as we gnash teeth about “open borders,” we have not reacted seriously and realistically to the logistical problem of processing asylum requests. Twenty years ago, most who crossed illegally tried to evade Border Patrol officers. Now, most simply line up to turn themselves in — but we’re still prioritizing enforcement.
Even as the Trump Administration spent $17 billion on border wall construction, to little or no discernible effect, budgets for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s asylum-determination infrastructure have stayed relatively minuscule. Even though more immigration judges have been hired recently, a huge need remains for asylum officers who can quickly determine whether a migrant is likely to have any asylum claim. The Biden Administration, it its hefty border supplemental request, is finally seeking to triple the number of asylum officers, but that funding is still in doubt and will be of no help in the short term.
And it is an immediate crisis we’re faced with here in Southern Arizona.
The Lukeville closure has created an untenable situation that must be dealt with now. If that weren’t crystal-clear before, the shooting death in an American car on a Sonoran highway this week — part of one of the detour routes to Rocky Point — certainly should make it so. If Customs and Border Protection can’t open Lukeville, the National Guard must be deployed to do so.
Ironically, the saber-rattling over immigration in Congress has fed the surge as those worried about an impending crackdown stream toward the border. More than ever, the disaster on the ground shows the folly of confusing playing politics with actually doing something about the problem.
Get your morning recap of today's local news and read the full stories here: tucne.ws/morning
