Tag: u s mexico border
More Mexican Immigrants Are Returning to Mexico Than Coming to the U.S.

More Mexican Immigrants Are Returning to Mexico Than Coming to the U.S.

Republished with permission from Alternet.

If you listen to Donald Trump and his legions of supporters—a task you undertake at your own peril—you will inevitably hear about hordes of invading Mexicans arriving in the United States daily, and the border wall the billionaire presidential candidate has proposed to keep them out. Variously described by Trump as a “gorgeous wall,” a “great, great wall,” and the “greatest wall that you’ve ever seen,” this magnificent would-be eighth wonder of the modern world has become a cornerstone of the GOP presidential contender’s campaign, a majestic concrete testament to America’s renewed Trumpian greatness.

Because he has thought of everything, Trump says there will be “a big, fat beautiful door right in the middle of the wall” to let back in the “good ones,” which is racist-speak for Mexicans who are “not like the others.” If any of this were based in reality and not bigoted delusion, the wall would also include a jaw-droppingly handsome doorstop to keep that breathtakingly dreamy entryway propped open all the time. Because right now, for the first time since the 1940s, more Mexicans are actually leaving the United States than are arriving.

Late last year, the Pew Research Center reported findings indicating that between 2009 and 2014, approximately 870,000 Mexican nationals arrived in the states. During that same time frame, an estimated “1 million Mexicans and their families (including U.S.-born children) left the U.S. for Mexico.” The number of departures outpaced arrivals by roughly 130,000, leaving the U.S. with a negative net flow of immigrants from Mexico arriving on its soil. With that, there’s been a resulting drop in the number of undocumented Mexican migrants living in the U.S., with the population decreasing by about one million from 2007 to 2014.

It would be probably be helpful if these facts and figures received a little more coverage at this moment, as our electoral season immigration debate is increasingly fueled by hysteria instead of facts.

Though President Obama has rightfully earned the moniker “deporter in chief,” the directional shift in Mexico-to-U.S. immigration is less the result of removals than changing views about this country, a desire to reunify with family and increases in migration by other groups. Pew cites sluggish Great Recession economic recovery, and correlating shrinkage in unskilled labor market, as a demotivating factor for Mexican migration and a possible reason why some migrants have returned home. While the ramping up of immigration laws, “particularly at the U.S.-Mexico border,” is a likely contributor to the drop-off in migration numbers, for many Mexicans, dwindling opportunities in America may be making the treacherous northward journey simply not worth the risk.

In the over 60 years Pew has pored over border patrol data, 2014 was the first time “more non-Mexicans than Mexicans were apprehended at U.S. borders…by the Border Patrol.” The downturn in Mexican migration attempts since the turn of the century has been fairly huge. In 2000, 1.6 million Mexican nationals trying to enter the country were apprehended at the border. In fiscal year 2014, that figure had plummeted to 229,00. Post-Great Recession America is a place fewer Mexican migrants are willing to undertake the journey to reach.

With decreasing belief in the accessibility of the American Dream, an increasing number of Mexican citizens are less convinced the grass to the north is greener. This is, perhaps, based on more widespread knowledge of the difficult lives migrants encounter, as relayed by nearly four generations of Mexican immigrants. Millions of Mexicans who have come to the U.S. over the past few decades made incredible personal sacrifices to get here, beginning with a dangerous, not infrequently lethal desert journey, followed by attempts to make a life here without cherished friends and loved ones around. Social isolation, alienation and loneliness—and encounters with xenophobia and racism, which have crept up since these surveys were conducted—can take a toll not always or fully remedied by money earned through backbreaking labor.

Maybe that explains why a 2014 Mexican Survey of Demographic Dynamics cited by Pew found 61 percent of migrants said their primary reason for returning home was to reconnect with family. That’s a far greater number than the mere 14 percent who reported they’d been deported. For the most part, migrants returning to Mexico from the U.S. are doing so of their own volition. Pew found that while 45 percent of Mexicans adults surveyed said life is better in U.S., one-third believe that “those who move to the U.S. lead a life that is equivalent to that in Mexico”—10 percent more than those who felt that way in 2007.

While the number of immigrants from Mexico has been trending downward, Pew notes that there has been a concurrent rise in unaccompanied children from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras arriving at the border. Any thoughtful discussion of the situation would necessarily include a look at the complex contributing geopolitical issues, including the impact of the U.S.’s political interventionism and the country’s failed war on drugs in places far beyond our own borders. There’s also the matter of immigration patterns changing, as they tend to do over time. Pew notes that “the U.S. Census Bureau recently reported that China overtook Mexico in 2013 as the leading country for new immigrants.” There are conflicting reports around this fact, including by Pew’s own tally, though the organization definitively states, “[r]egardless of the exact number of new immigrants from each country arriving in the U.S. each year, the trends are clear: Over the past decade, immigration from China and India to the U.S. has increased steadily, while immigration from Mexico has declined sharply.”

Still, the wall along the southern border remains a favored aspect of Trump’s policy platform among his adherents. A Pew survey released earlier this year found a staggering “84 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters who support Trump for the GOP nomination favor building a border wall.” Among Republican voters in general, 63 percent back the proposition. Just 13 percent of Democrats think this the wall is a good idea, while 84 percent are opposed to it. That’s closer in alignment with the feelings of Americans overall, 62 percent of whom say they are against the wall.

Amidst all the facts that should be emphasized in any sane conversation about Trump’s border wall, the standout is that there’s no way it will ever be built. The wall that Trump has not yet called “the sexiest thing to happen to border reinforcements” (give it a week) is really a make-up illusion to send his base into a frenzy; a fetish object fantasy for the white, angry, racist, “poorly educated” voters he claims to love so much. Between labor, cost, violations of the law and sheer uselessness, it’s obvious that Trump’s money pit will never become a reality.

Donald Trump may be a fool, but he’s not an idiot, and he knows all this. But he keeps promising a wall that gets bigger and better at every campaign stop. Because he knows his followers don’t really care what he actually does, as long as he tells them what they want to hear, thereby justifying all the terrible things they, and plenty of Americans, think.

Kali Holloway is a senior writer and the associate editor of media and culture at AlterNet.

Photo: A U.S. Border Patrol vehicle drives by the 18-foot (five-metre) high rusty steel barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border at sunset in Brownsville, Texas September 2, 2014.  REUTERS/Rick Wilking 

Endorse This: Donald Trump’s Anti-Foreigner Plan Is Already Working

Endorse This: Donald Trump’s Anti-Foreigner Plan Is Already Working

Donald Trump rose to become the presumptive Republican nominee primarily due to two policy proposals: building a gigantic (impossible) wall on the Mexican border, and barring all Muslims from entering the United States: as tourists, immigrants, asylum seekers, and, though Donald has backtracked on this last one, American citizens returning home.

Turns out we may not need to defile the Constitution to keep foreigners out of the country: a video released this morning by the BBC is one in a growing cache of evidence that Donald Trump himself, as president, would be more repulsive than any wall or travel policy.

In it, young residents of Delhi, India are asked whether they would be willing to visit the United States under a Trump presidency. Their answers may not surprise you, at this point, but therein lies what should be a real concern: our growing acceptance that Trump’s hyper-nationalism has already isolated the United States from our allies around the globe.

Video: BBC. 

Why The GOP’s Fence Fantasy Is A Farce

Why The GOP’s Fence Fantasy Is A Farce

A long time ago, in a not-so-faraway land, a civilization existed that was governed through a fairly rational political system. Even conservative candidates for high office had to have a good idea or two — and be quasi-qualified.

That land was the USA. It still exists as a place, but these days, Republican candidates don’t even have to be qualified — much less sane — to run for the highest office in the land. All they need is the backing of one or more billionaires, a hot fear-button issue to exploit and a talent for pandering without shame to the most fanatical clique of know-nothings in their party. Also, they must be able to wall themselves off from reality, erecting a wall of political goop around their heads so thick that even facts and obvious truth cannot get through to them.

Indeed, the GOP’s “One Great Issue” of the 2016 campaign for president is: The Wall. Ted Cruz practically snarls when he declares again and again that he’ll “build a wall that works.” Marco Rubio is absolute about it: “We must secure our border, the physical border, with a wall, absolutely.” And Donnie Trump has basically built his campaign atop his fantasy of such an imperial edifice: “We’re going to do a wall,” he commands, as though he’s barking at one of his hotel construction crews.

There are, of course, certain problems that you might expect them to address, such as the exorbitant cost of the thing, the extensive environmental damage it’ll do, and the futility of thinking that people aren’t clever enough to get around, over, under or through any wall. But don’t hold your breath waiting for any common sense to intrude on their macho posturing.

Trump even made a TV ad depicting hordes of marauding Mexicans invading our country — proof that a huge wall is necessary! Only, the film footage he used is not of Mexican migrants, but of Moroccans fleeing into Spain. But after all, when trying to stir up fear of foreigners, what the hell does honesty have to do with it?

A proper wall, we’re told, makes good neighbors. But an 18-foot high, 2,000-mile-long wall goes way beyond proper, and it both antagonizes your neighbor and screams out your own pitiful fear and weakness.

Besides, haven’t we been trying this for years? With the Secure Fence Act of 2006, Congress mandated construction of a wall along the 1,954 miles of our border with Mexico. A decade later, guess how many miles have been completed? About 650. It turns out that erecting a monstrous wall is not so simple after all.

First, it becomes prohibitively expensive — about $10 billion just for the materials to build it from the tip of Texas westward to the Pacific, not counting labor costs and maintenance. Second, there’s the prickly problem of land acquisition — to erect the scattered segments of the first 650 miles of fence, the federal government had to sue hundreds of property owners to take their land. Odd, isn’t it, that right-wing politicos who loudly rail against overreaching Big Government now favor using government muscle to grab private property? Third, it’s impossible to fence the whole border — hundreds of miles of it are in the Rio Grande’s flood plain, and more miles are on the steep mountainous terrain of southern Arizona.

Trump, Cruz, Rubio and the other “just build a wall” simpletons either don’t know what they’re talking about or are deliberately trying to dupe voters. Before you buy a 2,000-mile wall from them, take a peek at the small part already built — because of the poor terrain and legal prohibitions, it’s not one long fence, but a fragment here, and another there, with miles of gaps in between. Anyone wanting to cross into the U.S. can just go to one of the gaps and walk around the silly fence.

To find out more about Jim Hightower, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2016 CREATORS.COM

Illustration: Sam Reisman, National Memo

Trump Wises Up, Abandons His Improbably Large Wall

Trump Wises Up, Abandons His Improbably Large Wall

The most important moment in Wednesday night’s GOP debate was one that didn’t receive a lot of attention in the press: Donald Trump gave up on building his border wall. The candidate’s boldest policy proposal, a 2,000-mile-long barrier separating the United States and Mexico, was shortened to a mere 1,000 miles:

Trump: As far as the wall is concerned, we’re going to build a wall. We’re going to create a border. [. . .] They built the Great Wall of China. That’s 13,000 miles. Here, we actually need 1,000 because we have natural barriers. So we need 1,000.

It would seem unwise for a presidential candidate to vaunt a project that required the toil of many generations of slaves, so we must assume that Trump is ignorant of the unpleasant construction history of the Great Wall of China. Still, he should know that the Wall was built across harsh mountain ranges — without regard for any natural protection that the topography may have provided. Those who seek to create a true barrier do not trust nature to perform the task for them.

In his capitulation, Trump has moved closer to the conclusion that I came to in my previous article on the matter: Building a border wall is very difficult.

I congratulate Trump for recognizing that he cannot negotiate with the faceless realities of construction, and for scaling back his proposed wall appropriately. Unfortunately for those Republican voters who demand a wall that spans the full length of the Mexican border, it looks like they will not get it with Trump.

You can read the author’s original analysis of Trump’s border wall here.

Ali F. Rhuzkan is the pen name of a professional engineer and unprofessional writer living and working in New York City. The author can be reached at a.rhuzkan@gmail.com.

Photo: Republican U.S. presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio (L) talks to businessman Donald Trump at the end of the 2016 U.S. Republican presidential candidates debate held by CNBC in Boulder, Colorado, October 28, 2015. REUTERS/Rick Wilking