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

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by Laura Lai/ Essay

But not having a Republican majority in both chambers of the Congress is definitely hard on the (Republican) Donald Trump to pass his initiated legislation and even harder when the House Democrats does not even acknowledge the existence of a crisis at the southern border. ‘How bad does it have to get for Pelosi to care?’ was wondering Fox News on May 22^nd. 

            After long and repeated appeals to the House Democrats made by the President, his Republican fellows, Border Patrol officers and the press to acknowledge the southern crisis, at the end of June 2019, Donald Trump hold a speech at the Faith &Freedom Coalition, a non-profit organization, and he declared that:

‘Democrats are solely responsible for the humanitarian crisis because they have refused every single effort to shut off the magnets of child smuggling.’

            It is interesting to explore the reasons why the House Democrats ‘played politics with people’s lives’. There several hypothesis I would reflect upon. First, I would name the House Democrats’ commitment to impeach the U.S. President as a … solution to all internal and external challenges that the United States is facing. At least, I assume so. Otherwise why would the House commit to years long and very expensive research on ways to impeach the U.S. President? Although the ‘Russia lead’ did not bring arguments to impeach Donald Trump, on May 22^nd – when the humanitarian crisis was at its climax at the southern border – the House Democrats was still exploring other impeachment leads and Nancy Pelosi was committed to follow the facts:

‘We believe that no one is above the law, including the President of the United States. And we believe that the President of the United States is engaged in a cover up.’

The House Democrats ‘believes’ that there is a cover up, but they do not believe in a humanitarian and security crisis at their own border. America is founded on the freedom of belief, but for an outsider this ‘detective story’ unfolding at the top of the American politics in order to impeach the U.S. President – who he himself most probably believes that he is not above the law – seemed for long the only topic on the political agenda of the Democrats.

            Second, acknowledging the existence of a humanitarian and a security crisis at the southern border would automatically imply the need for the Democrats to work together with the Republicans in finding solutions, while if there is no crisis all legislative initiatives of the president can be rejected and public money invested in discovering the cover up. It is definitely a great advantage to be at that level of politics, because one can dispose of the public money for whatever belief one may have and if the investigations do not lead anywhere, the initiators of the public investigations do not have to pay the damage! And all Americans voted, in order for the Congress to play ‘Tom and Jerry’ at the top of world politics, instead of working together in their best interest.

            A third and last hypothesis I could possibly think of in this long Democrats’ denial attitude that there is a crisis at the southern border is the ‘open border’ mentality that they have and in which they … believe. They base their ‘open border’ position on the fact that the U.S. is a successful country of immigrants. I personally do not know how successful it really was before the economic achievements of the Trump Administration for the well being of all Americans – Democrats and Republicans alike, and I strongly doubt that the U.S. is a country of illegal and undocumented immigrants, human traffickers, drug smugglers and abused children and women. However, this ‘open border’ mentality rings European bells to me. Back in 2015 Europe faced a massive migration wave that border countries like Greece, Italy and Spain could not face anymore. Their appeals to Brussels had no effect. Then the migrants – some of them undocumented and potential terrorists – marched north towards Austria, Germany, Hungary and even Denmark and Sweden. Similarly to the U.S. Democrats, Brussels had no solutions, but opposed and found ridiculous Hungary’s initiative to build a fence for protection, Brussels being also a promoter of the ‘open border’ mentality.

            If the U.S. Democrats were inspired by their fellows Europeans, they did not get it right, because the Europeans promote in a hypocritical way this 'open border' issue: inside the European Union, there are no borders, but it has external borders and Brussels is so keen on having strong external borders (which clashes with the preached ‘open border’ idea) that it does not accept to integrate into their external border security system not even their own member states, which fulfill their border security criteria from all technological points of view, because those border countries have the reputation of being corrupt. Brussels’ argument is that when people are corrupt, technology is kind of useless. They have their point. Therefore, the ‘open border’ American and European mentalities although looking similar, they are also different. (to be continued)