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docrhw Weil's avatar

As usual, Americans tend to look at effects rather than causes. The longstanding influence of American corporations to virtually control parts of Central American and the Caribbean, with actual U.S. military occupation occurring in some cases, is not publicly discussed. Yet such conditions certainly helped to keep the people impoverished. Also not noted is the CIA overthrow of Guatemala’s legitimate government in 1954, nor are Reagan and Bush’s support for paramilitary forces in El Salvador and Nicaragua mentioned. Also ignored is how NAFTA helped destroy Mexican farmers, or that climate change is drying out much of the Northern Triangle. Republicans can shout about people fleeing north, but any human being is going to leave a situation where their family can’t be fed or could be shot. The fact that the U.S. is partially responsible for these conditions seems to have escaped them entirely.

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Thom Linden's avatar

Great report. Thank you. I had always observed this 'open border' propaganda but had not recognized it was itself a whistle used to trigger surges.

I will point out that the immigration courts are under DOJ and not the Department of Justice. This means these courts are subject to the Executive branch. The Trump administration intentionally underfunded the courts (while boosting the funding of ICE and BP and, naturally, the wall). They reduced hiring for the courts, and increased case loads by 3x. They also defined new policies where the applicant had no legal counsel and could pressure judges to ram cases through with a deny, deny, deny kangaroo court. Effectively, they turned the immigration courts into enforcement of an anti-immigration administration.

The Biden administration has been working to fix the system (and repeal the prior administration policies). Of course, Texas and other fascist led states want the system to remain broken and are working to block all reforms with legal challenges.

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