When Good People Overlook Bad Things: the Migrant Crisis in Perspective
"Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends..." -Isabel Paterson, The God of the Machine (1943)
My co-founder Danyela had the privilege of testifying in front of Congress last week. As a migrant from Brazil and the “American Dream” personified, Danyela was invited to speak as an immigrant, a Latina, a mother and as a community leader in NYC. And after her testimony, I wondered: what would the response be? Would our fellow New Yorkers better understand what is happening? Would they see who is getting hurt by our local policies?
And the answer is…I’m not sure.
Shocking Scale of Crisis
There are more than 110 million people “forcibly displaced” from their homes worldwide. Nearly half of those are children. A third of the total (36.4 million to be exact) are officially designated by the United Nations and international law as “refugees” which means they’re facing war, terrorism, famine and certain death. The majority of displaced people are women and children from Afghanistan, Syria and Ukraine. The US commits to resettling just 125,000 people a year.
Yes, you read that correctly, the United States commits to resettling just 125,000 of those legally-designated by international law as refugees each year.
But wait, how does that square with the millions crossing our border?
The majority of those crossing the US/Mexico border right now are considered “economic migrants.” They are mostly single adults. Mostly men. Over the past 30 years, the US has never approved more than 45,000 to remain based on their asylum claims. So, if you do the math you know that the vast majority of those on a waiting list (2 million and growing) will not receive asylum. But many will remain, including in New York, while they wait for court date that can be upward of 10 years into the future.
The Dire Harm to Children
If you ask around in polite circles you might hear more about style than substance, e.g., how the Republicans “sound” versus the Democrats. Of course, if you live in New York City you are aware of the city services being cut because of the great cost to house and care for those (mostly single adults…and young men) arriving to our city in large numbers. You may understand something is wrong. You see the human suffering and want to help. It is an incredibly complex and emotional issue.
But if you are largely unaffected you may also fall into this trap of debating how a message is “delivered” rather than the considering the details of the complaint — and that is a problem.
So on the heels of Danyela’s testimony, it might be helpful to review the very specific issue related to the children making the harrowing journey to the US border — as it was one of the key issues she shared during her Congressional testimony.
Cause for Worldwide Alarm
There is no question about the danger to women and children in making the journey to the border. And the tone and tenor of alarm continues to grow from every sector and “side.” Just a few highlights:
“Female migrants often suffer rape, assaults, and gun violence on the path northward towards the United States…” Journal of Nursing
“All smuggling of children, and a significant proportion of child trafficking, occurs in the context of child migration. Children, including those who are alone and those accompanied by family members, comprise an increasing percentage of irregular migrants globally.” United Nations
“Migrant children moving across Latin America at record numbers,” UNICEF
But one reference should have caught more of our attention during Danyela’s testimony — that of an emergency report created by the Department of Homeland Security. The lengthy document very specifically recounts the horrific dangers to children in making a trip that no adult should ever make. And why is it worse than any other report, you ask? Because it was delivered in 2019 and not only has nothing changed — it’s objectively gotten worse.
2019 Department of Homeland Security Report
A few highlights from the report (best shared here verbatim):
Tender age children are at the heart of the crisis. Most, 73%, of the children in FMUs illegally crossing our border are tender aged, being 12 or younger.
Migrant children are traumatized during their journey to and into the U.S. The journey from Central America through Mexico to remote regions of the U.S. border is a dangerous one for the children involved, as well as for their parent. There are credible reports that female parents of minor children have been raped, that many migrants are robbed, and that they and their child are held hostage and extorted for money.
Criminal migrant smuggling organizations are preying upon these desperate populations, encouraging their migration to the border despite the dangers, especially in remote places designed to overwhelm existing USBP infrastructure, and extorting migrants along the way, thereby reaping millions of dollars for themselves and the drug cartels who also charge money to cross the border.
A substantial number of families and children are entering our country in remote areas of the border versus the POEs, enduring dangerous and terrifying crossings in remote desert areas, across rivers, over fences, and through razor wire. These children increasingly require significant personal and medical care that exceeds the ability and capacity of CBP even with their current patchwork of contracted assistance
Children who are crossing the borders of the U.S. are at great risk for multiple medical problems, which include but are not limited to, dehydration, malnutrition, infections, psychological trauma, physical injuries and all aspects of child maltreatment
Some adults accompanied by a child revealed during CBP processing, that they were encouraged to bring a child with them by criminal smuggling organizations that are paid to transport the migrant and child to the U.S. border from Central America.
How Can This Be?
The issue is not a new one. But many don’t realize that Biden’s approach of allowing migrants in at such great numbers using various executive orders diverges from the policies of Clinton, Obama …and Trump. And by offering no-strings shelter, food, even laundry service and mobile phones, we are encouraging more of the economically depressed world to risk life to travel here.
But regardless of bipartisan bickering the details…the risk to children remains dire and demands our attention. Most may also be shocked to learn that both Republicans and Democrats have advocated for much the same solutions to protecting migrant children. In fact, if you listened to Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal’s comments during the hearing Danyela attended, it sounded something like this:
“Achieve Faster Asylum Processing. At a minimum, legislation is needed to modify asylum procedures, at least temporarily, so that a hearing and decision can be provided to family members within 20 or 30 days. We also are recommending that Congress immediately fund a substantial increase in immigration judges.”
…except that is one of the recommendations from the Trump administration in the above-referenced 2019 report.
If we truly want to help, facing facts at the heart of this crisis is a critical first step. And one of the first ones is asking that cities such as New York stop encouraging people from making a journey that is inhumane and that no child, especially, should ever have to endure. Or as the exceptionally prescient Isabel Paterson said… we risk turning ourselves into good people who do bad things in the name of misguided virtue.