Posted on 12/20/2018 1:40:40 PM PST by yesthatjallen
As the migrant caravan continues to dominate headlines, many of us are focusing on protecting the rights of those who are fleeing violence in their homelands. I recently traveled to Tijuana where I volunteered at a legal information table under a tent outside of Benito Juarez sports complex, a temporary shelter for roughly 6,000 Central Americans. What I saw was appalling, and a direct result of the fabricated crisis created by this administration.
One fact about the shelter became immediately clear. The shelter did not, in fact, provide shelter. It is an uncovered sports arena, which provided no refuge from the rains that arrived midweek. Most parents lacked access to a tent or a tarp to keep themselves or their children dry. Sleeping pads became wet, muddy sponges. The raw sewage that lingered near the portable toilets quickly spread, oozing its way quickly across the hardened ground and into the families belongings.
I realized only a few lucky ones were able to provide their child the temporary comfort of a clean diaper. I was startled at the number of sick children and parents lacking access to these basic supplies. One mother cradling a moaning 3-year-old child in her arms explained to me the various injuries she suffered at the hands of her abusive husband. She kept pausing during her description of why she left her country with her children to point out the blood in her childs stool, and that she could not sleep at night out of fear that her child might not make it.
Many also expressed concerns about safety in the shelter. We learned that women and children were taking showers in the open with their bodies completely exposed and with very little security. It was from this environment that I explained to the mothers, who shivered through wet clothing, children in tow, that it wasnt clear how many weeks, or months, they would need to wait to reach the U.S. border to ask for protection.
It was from this environment that I realized that many of the children who were navigating food and shelter on their own without the help of a parent, were also being turned away at the designated port of entries by DHS officials under a rule known as metering.
Our governments response to this humanitarian crisis has been nothing short of callous. Instead of attempting to understand why these children and adults have traversed thousands of miles to flee from their countries, the narrative has been riddled with war-mongering rhetoric, referring to the migration as an invasion.
At this time, it is paramount that we pause and parse the facts. The caravan is not moving together to serve as a weapon; they are together for self-protection. The journey from Central America to the United States is a perilous one. Thousands of miles are traveled merely on foot and often through dangerous regions.
Most of the girls we work with have been raped during the journey. Medecins Sans Frontieres recently found that 68 percent of interviewed migrants and refugees were exposed to violence in transit in Mexico, and about one-third of the women were sexually abused. Girls traveling on their own are more likely to face sexual abuse. It is also untrue that the caravan represents an unprecedented surge in the numbers of people attempting to cross the border. Our governments own data tells us that migration in recent years has been historically low.
Although the Benito Juarez sports complex was just shut down due to its poor conditions, the crisis continues. Tijuana is not set-up to serve as a waiting room for those seeking asylum in the United States.
We should be concerned about the fate of the unaccompanied kids in Tijuana, worried about the vulnerability of LGBTQ individuals moving about in Tijuana, and for the mothers and children who remain vulnerable to additional exploitation as they navigate the open air showers, lack of medical care and other basic needs, and the daily challenges of waiting for an uncertain amount of time in Tijuana.
What haunts me, as I come to terms with the manufactured humanitarian crisis I witnessed, is the degree to which these migrants have been othered that we ask them to sleep in the mud, in the cold, without access to sufficient food, restrooms or medical care.
Our asylum process and statutory protections set forth to protect unaccompanied children are far from perfect. Though imperfect, our government has the resources and capacity to follow the laws on our books. Its a moment we should all reach out to the Department of Homeland Security and ask them to do their job, permitting the children and adults who approach our border and who express a fear of returning to their home country to have their claims processed in accordance to the rules clearly set forth by Congress.
Anne Chandler is the executive director of the Tahirih Justice Center's Houston office, a nonprofit advocacy organization focused on helping immigrant women and children.
..to seek gringo's easy money handouts..
sounds like its past time for them to go home, doesn’t it?
they can apply to immigrate using regular channels directly from their home countries
Thumbs up to the mayor of Tijuana who is fed up with these migrants and their demands.
That’s old news....but the media keeps it alive to gain sympathy for the illegals...........who no matter what is done for them in Mexico will complain, creates issues, and a host of other happenings until they can get in. You cannot trust the reporting done on the Caravan peoples and illegals trying to get here. They are coached big time and positioned for the stories the media wants to feed the public.
"But you know, what I find so extraordinary is the left in the morning has one narrative, which is that, there no place more oppressive on earth than the United States for people of color. It's just, if you are a person of color in the United States, you are the subject of constant oppression and then in afternoon, says we need every third world person of color to come here. Well, they cannot both be true [emphasis added]. Heather MacDonald warns US colleges are breeding hate
Sleep in the mud, I don’t care.
The kid had blood in her stools? REALLY...and WE should take in a disease riddled kid and her incompetent mother?
Mexico didn't stop these people, it offered them asylum and work, but most of them turned it down!
They should either just stay in Mexico or go home!
Ann Chandler is notable mainly for the number of falsehoods she can pack into one short article.
This “crisis” as she calls it, is entirely caused by the governments of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador together with the idiots who allowed a Soros funded bunch of anarchists to persuade them to try and illegally invade our country. A thousand curses on all of them
So........what are Americans supposed to do about the “horrible” conditions during the invaders moving northward? What did these people think would happen when they reached the American border???? I cannot believe they are so dumb to believe the recruiters when the invasion was being put together in the early stages. This is NOT the problem for America. It is not OUR responsibility. We’ve taken too many irresponsible illegal aliens into our country and treated them WELL. In response these people do not think once to tell us what a terrible country we have, while they are spending OUR Tax money for themselves.
Mexico has made repeated offers to these people. So far, they have refused Mexico’s help. Brownsville, TX was 1500 miles closer and has a working crossing.
FAKE NEWS and Democrat Lies keep these pawns acting like fools!
We didn't ASK them to DO anything. They chose to do all of this. Free will and personal responsibility. Learn it and live it. It's what she expects from those of us she wants to pay for these people.
Yeah how does that work? They opened up a much nicer facility, but a lot of them didn’t go because they want to be close to the border, to cause idiots like the author of this article “concern”.
I bet they all have Houses and Beds but they picked the Mud and it’s not Trump’s fault
I recently traveled to Tijuana where I volunteered at a legal information table under a tent outside of Benito Juarez sports complex,Bullsh*t Artist
Does a chicken have lips?
Making themselves right at home then. #shole
” ...a direct result of the fabricated crisis created by this administration.”
I think an explanation is in order, because I’ve never seen anything from Trump about this issue other than and admonition to the people involved, not to come.
NOT.
OUR.
PROBLEM.
Go back to your NOT(According to Liberals) “SH!THOLE” countries. Life has to be wonderful there according to Democrats. After all there are hardly any WHITE people there don’t you know.
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