The U.S. Southern Border Crisis: Who’s the Man in this HuMANitarian Crisis? (III)

For a maximized image, please click on the cartoon.

by Laura Lai/ Essay

A country – be it small like Hungary or big like the United States of America – is defined by some elements, and among these state features is also the idea of having a border. If a country is the house of its inhabitants, then a border to the country is like a door to the house. The migrant – and this concept I understand well, as I have been trying and I still do to legally establish myself in another country than that of origin – is a person in ‘its pursuit of happiness’, as the U.S. Declaration of Independence states.

Therefore, if the Democrats promote the ‘open border’ mentality, it means that they can comfortably live without a door at their house and let in the whole world who wants to come to the U.S. I would definitely not mind to be able to come to the United States without visa struggling, to accommodate myself free of charge at Mrs. Pelosi, to help myself from her fridge until a find a job and if the American tax payer would like to pay a degree for me at Harvard or Yale, I – and no other migrant – will say ‘no’. Most probably, she would tell me that I am not a child anymore for this gratitude, although to me it fits perfectly in the ‘open border’ and ‘against discrimination’ policies. Then I would ask: ‘What about the 170,000 children at the southern border, can they come? Can they be put into the best American schools on the tax payers’ money?’ Maybe this way the Democrats understand the fear of the 23% of the Americans recently polled by Gallup. I am starting to like this ‘open border’ mentality that I do not know anymore why I am writing this essay. Ah, yes! I remember! It was about who’s the man in this southern border humanitarian crisis?

            Meanwhile, on May 17^th Donald Trump presents his new U.S. immigration policy (click here for the video) and on June 7^th the U.S. President met the President of Mexico to work together, in order to address the migration challenge and the constantly increasing flow of migrants coming from Central America through the southern border between the U.S. and Mexico (to read the joint declaration, click here). And no later than the end of June, the Washington Examiner presented figures showing that the Mexican government is respecting its part of the deal and started deporting the Central American citizens illegally in Mexico. On June 25^th, the Democrats acknowledged the border crisis, but not the humanitarian one, somehow suggesting ‘that it is still the Republicans who lack compassion’.

What do the Democrats believe that the Republicans are lacking? The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘compassion’ as a feeling: ‘Sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.’

            On the 2^nd of July 2019, the U.S. President signed the USD 4,6 billion in humanitarian and border assistance for the southern border. It was a bipartisan bill after a long struggle with the Democrats. This bill provides the financial needs for shelters, medical supplies, English courses and recreational programs, law enforcement procedures, etc. The man in this southern border huMANitarian crisis was Donald Trump for having acted with compassion. And if ‘man’ was spelt the way it is pronounced, with a ‘e’, the ‘men’ in this ‘huMENitarian’ crisis were the Border Patrol officers, who cared least about impeachments and cover ups and who were not passive at human sufferance, as well as all Church organizations, which with small donations and divine inspiration answered as humane as possible to this great challenge. (the end)