A Notion of Immigrants, Reprise 0

In a larger piece discussing what is wrong with press coverage of the immigrant situation at the southwestern border, Will Bunch provides a partial answer to one of the questions I raised earlier today:

The surge of desperate young people from countries such as Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador fleeing gang or drug-related violence, rape and sexual abuse, and economic crises exacerbated by drought or floods made worse by climate change, has increased in the two months since Biden became 46th president with a promise to undo the human rights abuses of the Donald Trump years and make America more welcoming to the region’s refugees. Right now, the number of unaccompanied migrant youths — about 10,000 in the hands of the Department of Health and Human Services, and another 5,000 with Customs and Border Protection — is double the previous record.

Here’s another bit of Bunch’s article (linked above), regarding what is wrong with the coverage of the current situation; I commend the rest to your attention.

The border situation is neither the first crisis facing the new administration nor close to the biggest — not with a pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans and the related economic crisis leaving 10 million out of work — but it is the nation’s most visible problem that can be so easily demagogued by Republicans looking to score cheap political points against a popular president, or get lapped up by Beltway journalists eager to go back to the brunch of lazy punditry.

Aside:

It is worth remembering that much of the chaos in those countries is the direct result of Ronald Reagan’s policies.