By Doug Porter
A group of right-wing demonstrators took to the streets on Tuesday, turning away three Border Patrol buses bringing 136 Central American migrant children and families to a Murrieta, California processing center.
So much for the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, which begins ends:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free;
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless,
Tempest-tossed to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
What the nation saw in Southern California yesterday (and last week in Escondido) was nothing short of racism and ignorance covered with a varnish of false patriotism. Right wing extremists have been sowing the seeds for this kind of confrontation for weeks now, stoking fears of disease, crime and economic ruin.
Today we’ll delve into the details of this sad moment in US history.
Here’s how the story was reported in The Hill, a publication aimed at Washington DC’s lawmakers:
More than 100 protesters waived American flags and chanted “USA!” “Impeach Obama!” and “Deport, Deport!” as they waited for the buses to arrive at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection station in Murrieta, nearly an hour away from San Diego.
Federal authorities tried to steer away from the entrance, according to USA TODAY, but the crowd blocked the street and forced the buses to reroute to a San Diego border facility.
The standoff comes after Mayor Alan Long of Murrieta, Calif., urged residents to fight against a plan to make the community a processing site for the surge of undocumented immigrants entering the country illegally.
Dara Lind at Vox.com described the mood:
This is some extremely ugly behavior: protesters are yelling “Go home!” at a bus full of children, and physically preventing detainees from going to the place they’re supposed to go and forcing the government to send them somewhere else.
Frankly, it’s a kind of personal, in-your-face nativism that wasn’t actually seen during the most recent debate over immigration reform in Congress. And it’s not that these residents are misinformed about who was coming on those buses: at a town hall last night, the mayor told residents, “What we’ve been told is that most of these immigrants are families. These are mothers and young children, or fathers and young children.” That didn’t mollify residents last night, and it didn’t stop protesters from coming out today.
How Ugly Was It?
Here’s a Tweet from a reporter for KESQ in Palm Springs:
Covered immigration issue in #Murrieta. 1 protestor said “go back to China.” 1 supporter told me to “go eat sushi.” Long way to go folks.
— Greg Lee (@gregolee) July 2, 2014
The Counter-Demonstration
Some people felt motivated to take a stand against the flag waving fools in Murrieta. Here’s one account from Raw Story:
A smaller group of protesters at the Murrieta facility, however, held up signs saying “Americans are immigrants” in support of the group of Central Americans, with some engaging in arguments with the anti-immigrant group.
“If these were Canadian children, we would not be having this interview right now, and that’s a fact,” said Enrique Morones, whose advocacy group, Border Angels, had prepared packages containing donated food and toiletries for the immigrants.
The Los Angeles Times also covered this aspect of the story, interviewing Temecula resident Lupillo Rivera:
A well-known Mexican banda singer who came to the United States at age 4, Rivera said he was driving by when he happened upon the protest at the Border Patrol station. He said somebody shouted that he was an illegal immigrant and should go home. Rivera, who is a U.S. citizen, went home and returned with several of his friends and bandmates to confront the protesters.
“Our people cook your food,” he shouted at them. “We didn’t ask for them to come here,” one protester shot back. Rivera, brother of the late Mexican singer Jenni Rivera, said anybody who would turn away a busload of children was “not human.” “It doesn’t matter where a child is from,” he said. “He deserves respect and help because he’s a child.
Lupillo Rivera via Facebook
Some Demonstrators Are More Equal Than Others
The nativist demonstrators actually blocked the highway leading into the Border Patrol processing facility in Murrieta. Last I heard that’s an arrest-able offense. I’m just about 100% certain that if this had been, for instance, an Occupy demonstration, the protesters would have been lucky to just get away with being arrested. It’s more likely they would have been pepper-sprayed and a few heads would have been bashed in on the way to the jail house.
The difference in this situation is the involvement of law enforcement personnel with the right wing groups. Specifically I’m talking about members of the union representing the Border Patrol agents. They are the source for much of the misinformation being circulated among right-wing groups.
Here’s a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch newsletter:
Shawn Moran is the Vice President of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC), which represents more than 17,000 border patrol agents and support staff. Last week, he appeared on the Pete Santilli Show, whose host is organizing a protest to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border on July 5th and who previously called for President Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Bush family to be shot and killed.
The NBPC has a conservative stance on immigration, so it’s no surprise that Moran’s name appears regularly in right-wing outlets. But he crossed the line by lending credibility to an extremist like Pete Santilli who wants to shut down the very thing – the border – that he and the people he represents are sworn to protect.
The Right Wing Campaign
The current surge in right-wing propaganda has its origins in photographs made possible by Border Patrol personnel. For the right wingers involved, the border crisis is an opportunity to kill any possibility that moderate Republicans will introduce any reform bill with legalization and to attack Obama’s executive actions in the area of immigration.
Photojournalist David Bacon, writing at CounterPunch.org, explains how this came about:
The story began with a series of photographs, showing young people and children in detention centers all along the U.S./Mexico border. These photos were published on a website, breitbart.com, which has a long history with the Tea Party and extreme right wing causes….
….Any photographer who has taken photographs in a prison, jail or detention center knows that it is difficult, and often impossible, to show the face of an inmate or detainee. Yet these photographs are taken by people with completely free access to show not only faces, but also the entire context of the places in which the children are being held. There is only one group of people who have such unrestricted access: the Border Patrol itself, and the guards who work for private detention corporations like Geo and CCA.
The article brags about being leaked the photos: “Breitbart Texas obtained internal federal government photos depicting the conditions of foreign children warehoused by authorities on U.S. soil on Wednesday night.”
Extremist ‘Balance’ in the Mass Media
Lest you think this campaign is relegated to right wing echo chambers, extremists are using this opportunity to get their messages over the mainstream media.
Here’s a City News Service report, used on media throughout the region. Part of it was included in KPBS and KUSI stories aired recently.
Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform told City News Service there is no way of knowing “with certainty” the histories of those being brought to the area. Mehlman said some of the “children” who have been showing up and surrendering to federal agents along the border look older than they claim and have been identified as affiliates of criminal syndicates such as the notorious MS-13.
“Before the Obama administration put a gag order on the Border Patrol, agents were saying they recognized some of these so-called `kids’ as gang members,” Mehlman said. “The agents were forced to take them anyway. The last thing any community wants is more gang members running around.”
Ira Mehlman is not your average conservative activist. Nor is the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) anywhere close to a sane political group.
From RightWingWatch:
In an interview with Janet Mefferd yesterday, Federation for American Immigration (FAIR) spokesman Ira Mehlman, suggested that DREAMers should be forced to “go home” with their families and called Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor a “demagogue” for using the term “undocumented immigrant” rather than “illegal alien.”
The extremism of this group has been the subject of reports by the Anti-Defamation League. As the Southern Poverty Law Center documented back in 2007, FAIR is part of a decades old nativist network that includes NumbersUSA, and Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) :
The vast majority of these groups were founded or funded by John Tanton, a major architect of the contemporary nativist movement who, 20 years ago, was already warning of a destructive “Latin onslaught” heading to the United States. Most of these organizations used their vast resources in the days leading up to a vote on the bill to stir up a nativist backlash that ultimately resulted in its death.
At the center of the Tanton web is the nonprofit Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the most important organization fueling the backlash against immigration. Founded by Tanton in 1979, FAIR has long been marked by anti-Latino and anti-Catholic attitudes. It has mixed this bigotry with a fondness for eugenics, the idea of breeding better humans discredited by its Nazi associations. It has accepted $1.2 million from an infamous, racist eugenics foundation. It has employed officials in key positions who are also members of white supremacist groups. Recently, it has promoted racist conspiracy theories about Mexico’s secret designs on the American Southwest and an alternative theory alleging secret plans to merge the United States, Mexico and Canada. Just last February, a senior FAIR official sought “advice” from the leaders of a racist Belgian political party.
NBC7 News gave “conservative activist” Rhonda Deniston (North County Regional Director of Stop Taxing Us) a shot at adding to their coverage:
But conservative activist and blogger Rhonda Deniston is concerned the influx of undocumented children could impact public health and strain border patrol.
“We’re putting huge burdens on our Border Patrol, where they cannot effectively secure our borders because they’re dealing with this crisis,” Deniston said.
Deniston’s blog is busy spreading fear about diseases carried by the migrants, with a link to this story prominently displayed:
Carried by this tsunami of illegals are the invisible “travelers” our politicians don’t like to mention: diseases the U.S. had controlled or virtually eradicated: tuberculosis (TB), Chagas disease, dengue fever, hepatitis, malaria, measles, plus more. I have been working on medical projects in Central and South America since 2009, so I am aware of problems these countries face from such diseases.
A public health crisis, the likes of which I have not seen in my lifetime, is looming. Hardest hit by exposures to these difficult-to-treat diseases will be elderly, children, immunosuppressed cancer-patients, patients with chronic lung disease or congestive heart failure. Drug-resistant tuberculosis is the most serious risk, but even diseases like measles can cause severe complications and death in older or immunocompromised patients.
I won’t bother sharing the link she tweeted yesterday to her 117 followers leading to a story about how Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio is getting close to finding out who is behind forging the President’s birth certificate. Suffice it to say, she’s a whack-a-doodle. Ya gotta love that “balanced” reporting.
The Root Causes of the Crisis
What’s happening at our southern border is not an immigration crisis. It’s a refugee crisis. It’s not just me saying this–the United Nations 2012 Women’s Refugee Commission report says so.
Colorlines.com has a great article about the three primary myths of the unaccompanied minors crisis, those myths being:
- The current refugee crisis is a creation of President Obama’s making.
- Telling parents in Central America to stop sending their children, and quickly deporting the ones who are here, will fix the problem.
- This is an immigration problem.
Journalist Laura Carsen has a story posted at America’s Program entitled “Child Migrants and Media Half-Truths” that speaks to media’s inability to explain the motivations behind those trying to cross our borders from Central America.
Vox.com has an explainer posted about just how bad the street violence in Central America really is. A quote:
Children are uniquely vulnerable to gang violence. The street gangs known as “maras” — M-18 and Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13 — target kids for forced recruitment, usually in their early teenage years, but sometimes as young as kindergarten. They also forcibly recruit girls as “girlfriends,” a euphemistic term for a non-consensual relationship that involves rape by one or more gang members.
If children defy the gang’s authority by refusing its demands, the punishment is harsh: rape, kidnapping, and murder are common forms of retaliation. Even attending school can be tremendously dangerous, because gangs often target schools as recruitment sites and children may have to pass through different gangs’ territories, or ride on gang-controlled buses, during their daily commutes.
Oh, and one final thing. Today marks the 50th Anniversary of President Johnson signing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Here’s my favorite Tweet from yesterday.
@AnthonyWagnerSD @HaileyErin @drolland eerily familiar pic.twitter.com/LYYckK04PM — Greg Block (@blockgreg) July 1, 2014
On This Day: 1937 – American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart disappeared in the Central Pacific during an attempt to fly around the world at the equator. 1947 – An object crashed near Roswell, NM. The U.S. Army Air Force insisted it was a weather balloon, but eyewitness accounts led to speculation that it might have been an alien spacecraft. 1990 – Representatives of the Italian Catholic Church announced that they would attempt to halt Madonna’s concerts in Rome because of her alleged inappropiate use of crucifixes and sacred symbols.
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Thank you, Doug Porter. This has been cross-posted at OB Rag to remind us just how far we still have to go …..
It’s gonna get ugly. La Raza groups are going to mobilize against these hateful people. Teabaggers, open carry gun nuts, yahoo militia types and Minutemenso Mexican haters are going to join forces. Then ugly ugly ugly.
Xenophobia is NOT a California value.
Xenophobia is NOT an American value.
Xenophobia is NOT a HUMAN VALUE.
Incredible picture of woman hater and male zenitude.
Thank you, Porter, you’re a real reporter. What’s going
on now can mobilize the decent and shame the racists.
The ugly part of that crowd in news videos was exclusively
white; the fact is inescapable.
The decisions of the Supreme Court, the endlessly hateful
and even murderous threats on the president via AM radio,
the think-tank trolls paid by the word, the gun lobby, the
hobby lobby… all of it, either is outlaw thuggery or paid
subversion of democratic processes.
And, nothing was more likely to provoke this latest show of
hatred in Murrieta than Cliven Bundy’s escape from justice;
after all, he turned back federal police and his successful
defiance of the law, since then, has escaped the notice of
national media.
We can’t tell how far these reactionary collection of odd and
violent white people (look at the news videos) will get before
they become a coup. They have the Supreme Court and the
House.
People, show up, do what you can. Keep thinking.
We are a NATION of immigrants! Have we forgotten this fact????? Can any of those demonstrators in Temecula claim to be from any of the native North American tribes???????????????
Great piece, Doug. Congratulations. A sad day for America.
The best word I have seen to describe the protests in Murrieta … UGLY! Besides being ugly, it was inhumane and illegal. I am ashamed of my fellow Americans. We are a land of immigrants. These are not illegals running from Border Patrol. They are mothers and children begging for amnesty to escape turmoil in their homeland. Where did your ancestors come from? Stop the ugliness and show the Spirit of America.
I have mixed feelings about this whole situation. But I do feel that those Iraqi citizens who acted as our translators during Bush’s useless incursion into their country, should have been given asylum. They were not. Yet they risked everything. The citizens of Central America should be fixing their own countries, not leaving them. And yes, drugs need to be legalized in the US so as to stop all this illegal trafficking. Republicans need to get off their backsides and help the President write an immigration bill.
Now that I’ve said that, I also feel the US cannot take in every person who wants to come here, whatever their reason.
No one has mentioned that if these folks were coming from Cuba, there would be open arms awaiting them and a press corps describing the heinous conditions they had escaped. This is right wing political BS , all the more hateful because it targets primarily children.
Right you are Laurie. If these folks were Cuban, all they’d have to do is put one foot on American soil, and they’d be welcomed and processed hastily. But most of the Cubans vote Republican, huh?
It’s true about Cuba, I forgot about that. It IS rightwing riled up emotion. First having stubbornly refused to work with the President on immigration reform or some sort of a plan, they have left no choice as to helping these people who show up on our doorstep. Then they criticize the Pres for not doing anything to stop it. He’s damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t.
That’s exactly the position they want him in.
So true Judith. I think the crisis unfolding at our border is more accurately described as a refugee crisis rather than an immigration problem.
How are these extreme right wingers finding out the details of where these buses carrying the immigrants are going? And why are the police allowing these xenophobes to obstruct the buses?
These extreme right wingers are being tipped off by members of the Border Patrol union. According to today’s LA Times:
Another group is expected at the Murrieta facility Friday, a Border Patrol union official told the Press-Enterprise.
In light of Tuesday’s protests, ICE officials declined to say what the future held for the Murrieta station and potential arrivals.
“At this point, due to safety and security considerations … we are not providing any further information,” Kice told the Los Angeles Times in an email Wednesday.
So while the government is trying to keep movements of the migrants quiet, the Border Patrol union is blabbing the information. This is a pattern that shows up repeatedly.
The law–signed by President Bush–says that non-Canadian/ non-Mexican children who show up at our borders must be given the opportunity to declare refuge status. They are then entitled to due process to determine the validity of their claim.
Thank you Doug for that important fact. I’m tired of so many people blaming Pres. Obama for these kids coming to our country, when it was Pres. Bush who set up the process that must be applied in their cases. I’m tired of all the hatred I see directed at these immigrants from so called good Christian folks, whose sacred scriptures tell them to love their neighbor and be charitable to the less fortunate. I really don’t think Jesus would approve of their behavior.
We should be picketing the Central American embassies who are overseeing a vicious anti child gang led campaign to destroy a generation of children and put guns in there hands. Attack the root cause for once. Instead of war on drugs wage a war on poverty and gang warfare in central American and begin to establish a system of caring for the families and children who are so desperate they must flee for their lives.
Exactly. We should be attacking the conditions of extreme poverty that create these situations both in Central America and here in the US where the prison-industrial complex makes sure that a huge percentage of African-American and Latino men end up in prison because they have no employment prospects. Gangs and drug dealing are the only remunerative activities available to them.
This then creates a culture in impoverished non-white communities in which going to jail is a normal everyday occurrence. The root cause of this kind of violence is extreme poverty. Once a person goes to jail, most often for a minor drug offense, he is part of the “prison system” that will follow him for the rest of his life. He will have even fewer job prospects after he gets out of prison.
This dysfunction feeds upon itself and guarantees that the next generation – without a father present growing up because he’s incarcerated – will inevitably fall into the same poverty induced trap. This epidemiology then supplies generation after generation of fresh inmates for the prison-industrial complex and is the same in the US and Central America as well as other parts of the world.
I agree with you John…I have said that all along. They do not have to keep them in jail anymore..just hang an offense on them and they are marked for life and no hope to better their families. Hope must be applied at the lowest levels to strive and break that cycle. Same time….Americans have a right to assemble and protest against the injustice handed down by their elected officials. They made large make shift facilities available for Katrina victims…They can do the same in a snap where they are first brought in. Get food, shelter and medical facilities put together as you do in any crisis. Then get services set up in the towns ahead of time..instead of dumping on small communities.
Those governments are creatures of US neo-liberal policies, so you might as well go picket the State Department , the Congress, the DEA and the Pentagon.
To paraphrase from the America’s Program article:
** The Central American and North American Free Trade Agreements have left thousands of youth with no economic opportunities.
**US security aid for drug wars has armed and aggravated violence in Mexico and Central America.
**The high cost of supporting the Honduran coup. The Honduran people and the US population continue to pay that price, as out migration has surged over 500% in the past two years and human rights violations, instability and violence are skyrocketing.
It’s also worth noting that Nicaragua, whose economy is as depressed as any others in the region, it NOT a source of the people showing up at our borders. Their government has opted out of playing nice with US foreign policy.
Mr. Porter:
The inscription on the Statue of Liberty is the poem by (Jewish immigrant) Emma Lazarus titled, “The New Collossus.” It begins,
“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name:
Mother of Exiles.”
The lines you noted are the ending, not the beginning.
I only know this because I went to school in NYC, but you could look it up ;-)
It’s easy to judge from the outside, not being the one handed the problem. Murrieta is a small city, without the resources to handle 140 new immigrants every few days. That’s nearly twice as many as the border patrol office has stated they can even process. Then, once processed, the people are simply released into the community. To go where? Who will take care of them? Who will tend to their awful health (the hospitals are too small to handle that kind of load)? They don’t have family in the area – they’ve been shipped over from Texas. Are you and your ranting followers going to drive up and take care of them? Of course not. The burden of caring for nearly 300 new people per week is dumped on a small community, with complete disregard for the damage that will ensue.
So yeah, the protestors’ response was “ugly”, but no uglier than the expectation that they simply accept the federally-ordered destruction of the community. Well, except the racist remarks – those people are idiots.
If you believe Murrieta should take on this burden, then how do you propose they handle it? How do they process twice as many people as they can handle? How do they provide health care for quantities far exceeding the hospital capacities? Where do they house all of those people? Unless you can provide solutions to these problems, you’re in no position to condemn anyone for not accepting the burden.
Were the people demonstrating saying “we can’t do this?”
No.
They were saying “Impeach Obama” and “Go Back to China” to an news reporter of Asian descent. And then there were the flyers passed out at the Murrieta meeting tonight trying to scare people about catching diseases from these women and children. This was all about hate. Period. End of story.
And IF the city wanted to deal with the issue of the refugees, there would have been plenty of REAL people of faith willing to step up and help.
Here’s a link to a story about how one city in Texas that’s got many, many more migrants coming through has addressed the problems:
The biggest issue to me is that these protesters aren’t just random citizens of Murrieta, they’re part of an anti-immigrant group who were tipped off by the boarder patrol. We don’t know if any of these people actually live in Murrieta. I saw the husband (former boarder patrol agent who was fired) of a coworker of mine protesting on TV, I know for a fact that they live about an hour south of Murrieta in San Diego.
This is all about racism and hate, it has nothing to do with “Voice of Reasons” concerns.
Many of those people do live in Murrieta. There were in fact many outsiders as well though, and I appreciate you highlighting that fact, as many simply point the finger at all of Murrieta.
The concerns I share are those of the citizens of Murrieta – the REAL concerns (not the rantings of a few racist idiots). I share them because the quoted stories are misleading. Yes, Mayor Long “urged residents to fight”, but that conveniently omits that he was clear about fighting through the proper legal channels – contacting our representatives. The mayor didn’t encourage this. And, as pointed out by yourself, these aren’t all Murrieta residents. I don’t appreciate Murrieta being painted as a hateful and racist place, when that’s so far from the truth.
A couple people may have said those things, but that was not the general sentiment of the group. Just look at all the pictures of the protestors – most are simply protesting illegal immigration. This had nothing to do with hate – at least, not for most. There will always be idiots in a crowd, but to judge an entire city on the actions of a few is ridiculous.
Were you at the Murrieta meeting? It’d be great to see people step up and help, rather than just complain. The help is welcome. As for diseases though, the concern is valid.
There ARE “plenty of REAL people of faith willing to step up and help.” They’ve stepped in to help where they can, and plastered their social media pages asking others to do the same. In fact, just this past Sunday, our pastor encouraged the congregation to help, by providing foster homes, food, or anything else they may be able to offer. Just because they weren’t at the protest (why would they be?) doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
That Texas story is nice and all, but Murrieta doesn’t have the same support system they do. It’d be great if that weren’t the case – those children shouldn’t have to suffer – but it is.
It is ridiculous to contend that “all these people are being dumped on the small community of Murietta” or words to that effect. Murietta is just part of a megalopolis that includes Temecula, Winchester, Menifee, Lake Elsinore and points north. It is just part of the suburban sprawl of So Cal. It is not self-contained. To think this is all about “the small community of Murietta” is ridiculous. The Mayor of Murietta is just trying to make a name for himself and get his mug on TV as much as possible. The rest of them are just a bunch of haters who come from all over.
Thanks Doug for the link to that story about how real people in Texas of faith and goodwill are handling this refugee crisis.
How could things be different? The good folk of Murrieta could have followed the law. Doug explained that law: “The law–signed by President Bush–says that non-Canadian/ non-Mexican children who show up at our borders must be given the opportunity to declare refuge status. They are then entitled to due process to determine the validity of their claim.”
President Bush didn’t open the borders and invite everyone in. This “humanitarian crisis” is a recent development, arising long after Bush’s time. And since when did that “opportunity” involve shipping bus loads of illegal immigrants several states away for “due process”? They should be detained where they arrive. Not to mention, these are not “non-Mexican” children.
As previously mentioned, I encourage all you “good folk” outside of Murrieta to lend a hand, rather than just an angry voice. You won’t though. You’ll just sit comfortably outside, shaking your fist at those inside, feeling good about yourselves. If I’m wrong, by all means, please prove me wrong.
What proof do you have that they aren’t “non-Mexican. Last I heard, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala are not Mexico. Do you have a link showing that there were in fact Mexican nationals amongst this group? I’d love to see it.
Excuse me Mr. VoR, but what the fuck do you mean by “lend a hand”? Lend a hand for … WHAT??
Lend a hand to protest the protesters?
Lend a hand to help the BP process these refugees?
They are NOT going to be just set free in the community — they are to be detained. In detention centers. Like the one that was rejected last week in Escondido. Except for thosee who have relatives in the US — they will go to those relatives.
Where are you getting your mis-information from? Same place as your hate?
Um… I apologize for ignorantly spreading mis-information. I found out today (on NPR, so I think it’s reliable) that, yes, after processing, some or most of these migrant refugees would indeed be released into the community to make their own way to their destinations.
I was wrong and the reason is that I couldn’t fathom that this would actually be the proceedure that The Feds were going to follow. Seems to me a mistake (to put it mildly) to do this.
Amazing piece. Proud to be a part of San Diego Free Press
Shame on these people for behaving in such an ugly way while carrying the American flag. “Whatever you have done unto the least of these, you have done unto me.”
People are trying to use this comments section to spread misinformation. Here’s 13 facts that everybody should know:
Here’s today’s LA Times stories on their motivations:
Here’s the Vanderbilt University study for 2014 on Violence and Migration in Central America:
And here’s the FactCheck.org chart showing the source countries for these migrants:
Thanks, Doug, for publishing those 13 facts that everybody should know because I think most people do not know them! We are all (?) feeling compassion and futility in trying to understand how to handle this crisis! I noted in the Murrieta situation, the comment that they would be released to the street because they don’t have a facility for them! Then what???? Our lack of immigration policy has put all of us at risk for knowing the correct procedure because there isn’t one. The bad guys shout angrily and the good guys wring their hands! We must have laws to govern us in this badly mangled situation!
My god, I feel so hopeless for this country. We never learn from our mistakes. The racism and hatred going on now IS reminiscent of the horrors of what African Americans had to (and still do) endure back in the day. We are insincere hypocrites with a holier-than-thou attitude toward anyone that is different or “the other.” We have a lot of work to do.