OMG Immigration police seen detaining people denied asylum

Deporting illegal aliens

U.S. Customs Enforcement and Immigration officers are caught by the local Phoenix affiliate of ABC News, ABC15, in the act of DOING THEIR JOB! Just look at what is going on in downtown Phoenix today.

This is a Breaking News report. According to the ABC15 live action reporter,

Our crews at the scene on Wednesday morning saw agents waiting outside and detaining people as they exited the building. ABC15 spoke with a few of the people who were being placed in vans, who said they initially came to the courthouse for asylum cases, which they say were then dismissed.

Is case dismissed a good outcome? 

The reporter asked questions of two women being assisted to their seats in one of the white vans. Through the assistance of a Spanish interpreter, both said that they had gone to court for hearings of their request for asylum cases; the immigration judge had "dismissed" both cases. One woman was from Venezuela, another from Mexico. 

Asylum hearings are not like civil lawsuits or non-immigration related criminal charges!  Dismissal of a lawsuit or criminal indictment would be a GOOD thing for a defendant. Dismissal of a request for asylum would NOT be a good thing for an asylum seeker. If dismissal were the outcome of these immigration court hearings, then arrest and deportation would follow. 

ABC15 doesn't seem to realize this, as they "reached out to officials to find out why people were being detained or arrested".

Asylum as shortcut to migration

The consequences of illegal entry (i.e. deportation) are held in abeyance if one claims to be seeking asylum in the U.S. Until the presidential administrations of Obama or maybe, G.W. Bush, this sort of asylum seeking was rare, and mostly sought by citizens of Warsaw Pact countries during the Cold War. 

As of 2018, an estimated 11 million illegal aliens resided in the U.S. including the Obama-declared DACA aka Dreamers. Between 10 and 20 million asylum seekers joined them during the four years of Joe Biden's presidency. Be aware that the entire U.S. population is about 330 million men, women, and children. 

11 + 15 = 26 million illegal non-citizens residing in our country means that 7.9% of the people in our country lack legal status.

Not-so-developing story

ICE's response should surprise no one:

"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is executing its mission of identifying and removing criminal aliens and others who have violated our nation’s immigration laws. All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States, regardless of nationality... The agency publicly announces operational results when appropriate."

Illegal entry to the U.S. is a criminal act, yet ABC15 news didn't consider the ICE statement to be helpful in shedding light on the situation. 

Chrome browser still has memory problems

They have been standing outside since 7AM this morning, in the mid-May heat. The illegal aliens have had an easier time of it. 

Unlike the reporters, they were whisked away from the cool comfort of the courthouse into white air-conditioned vans.

104 degrees

ABC15 News is not so fortunate! 

It is now 95 degrees downtown, with rising temperatures expected. Viewers were told that the reporting crew will stay put, to provide updates on this developing (?!) story.

Making North America into South America

Many of the 10 million people (minimum) now seeking asylum from Latin and South America who are currently residing in the U.S. give reasons such as an abusive husband, possible danger from local criminal gangs or drug cartels, systematic racism against indigenous groups, or really bad elected governments such as Maduro in Venezuela. 

A justification often given by American and Canadian NGOs and migrant advocacy groups is that the political misdeeds of the U.S. government and large corporations prior to the year 2000, to nations due south of us, were so egregious and destructive that the citizens of those countries deserve to be given taxpayer funded residency in the U.S. without the usual path to citizenship required of foreign nationals desiring citizenship here. 

These asylum-eligible (although not necessarily asylum granted) situations are broadly applicable to at least 10% of the populations of Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Belize. How many people might that be?  

10% of the population of those nations, in order as listed, based on total populations by United Nations as of 2024 (projected) which is consistent with more current non-projected data from Worldometers (remember them from the COVID-19 days?) is   

13.1 + 5.2 + 1.1 + 1.8 + 0.7 + 2.8 + 1.8 + 0.04 = 26.5 million people

Add that 26.5 million to the approximately 26 million already here, for a total of 52.5 million people in the United States who mostly don't read, write, or speak English, totalling 16% of the population. Of course, it could be 20% of those countries, in which case we would have

(26.5 x 2) + 26 = 53 + 26 = 79 million people

Now we're up to 24% of the population of the U.S. 

Enough extrapolation. Let's say someone has been living in the United States for the past year, as these two women have. They've been receiving U.S. taxpayer-funded free housing, food stamps, mobile phones, clothing, medical and dental care, for themselves and any minors they brought along with them. Hearings before an immigration judge are very backed up. Sometimes cases take two or three years to heard.

My point here is that the United States cannot absorb the all of the developing world, which should be obvious to Americans, but apparently, is not.

Looking back at AZ SB 1070 and root causes

This could have been avoided. I recall Arizona State Bill 1070 and even wrote about it here, over 14 years ago. 

Illegal immigration problems are sometimes due to lack of political will. In the United States, the more significant cause is the benefit accruing to some members of both political parties by disregarding our existing immigration laws.

For the Democratic Party, the common trope is that Democrats do want illegal migrants, as they're equivalent to "undocumented Democrats" as a loyal voting block for the next several decades. The equally disparaging trope ascribed to Republicans is that they don't want illegal migrants because the GOP are all racists. 

In fact, both Republicans AND Democrats want more immigration, whether it is by illegal entry or under the auspices of the much abused H1-B visa program. Upper middle-class GOP and Dems enjoy the savings realized by having household help and home services provided by low wage migrants rather than paying fair wages to Americans. This extends to small business owners needing day laborers, low-skill jobs in agriculture (e.g. picking crops at harvest time), back-of-the-house restaurant workers, auto mechanics' helpers, farm hands, lowest level landscaping, paving, and abattoir workers, etc. These jobs are vital, although behind the scenes, for a developed economy to function.

Americans used to do these jobs, mostly when they first entered the workforce, but not necessarily. Until about 1970, these jobs paid sufficiently, and the prices of housing, food, medical care, clothing, and transportation were such that it was a living wage, usually sufficient to support a wife and a few children after a few years of saving... but this is a subject for another day.