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A Manufactured Crisis
As I read the headlines and the occasional news story on the progress of the so-called migrant caravan coming up from Mexico, I cannot help but sense that we are but spectators to a well-orchestrated script or screenplay.
Unless I’ve missed some seminal event apart from the collapse of the Venezuelan economy, there is no driving natural or humanitarian calamity that is driving this group of Central American migrants to the American border. Apart from the preceding, which would be expected to result in an unorganized but populous stream of refugees, this caravan presents the appearance of planning, organization, and facilitation. To all accounts, the goal appears to be the American border. To be sure, it would not surprise me in the least that some of that number truly have been or are in dire straits, just as I’m sure that some are opportunists and paid collaborators as well. But I fear that a substantial number are being used as pawns in a larger game play to force a confrontation.
Because that’s what this is: a confrontation. An attempt to disrupt and disturb the status quo. Consider the optics. A large group of people physically mass themselves at the border, demanding entry. Assume for the moment that they gather at a legit border crossing, as opposed to a more remote location. Assume also that the American military and/or National Guard take their positions. Instant, manufactured flashpoint. I submit the whole point of the effort is a test — what exactly will the United States do?
Possibility #1: Entry is denied. A prolonged standoff occurs. The potential for violence increases. Bad optics all the way around, but very bad for border hawks if the migrant mass is fired upon in any way. You and I know exactly how that will play in the media. It will eventually turn into a humanitarian crisis, and we will foot the bill.
Possibility #2: Entry is permitted (unlikely, but go with it for a moment). Again, bad optics. Why do we have a border at all? Bad optics for the no-borders crowd, because while they themselves may initially spike the football, it is a gross misreading of the mood and sentiments of the majority of American voters, and they will lose support rapidly. It’s a bad look for the nation as a whole and will accelerate the decay of what trust remains in our system of government.
I really don’t see a middle ground here. This caravan has been crafted to test the reactions and tolerance of the American government and its citizens. It is a manufactured crisis, to intentionally create the conditions for a flashpoint. My compassion is reserved for those who are being used as pawns in someone else’s game because they are the ones who will suffer most.
No good can come of it, no matter what course is taken. And about all we can do is watch. And wait.
Published in General
The only thing you can be entirely sure about is that they are not refugees seeking asylum. Because they were offered asylum in Mexico and kept right on going.
Therefore, there can be no legitimate asylum claims from this group.
Perhaps, but you can bet your bottom dollar that before this is over, all the chryons on all the networks will call them “refugees”. It’s written in the next Act in the screenplay.
No question that this has been carefully orchestrated, and right in time for mid-term elections. I doubt actual refugees would be so perfectly adept at getting their message out, complete with tv cameras, embedded reporters, chanted slogans, and protest signs.
We have to show these leftists that this stuff will not work. I’m sick and tired of it.
Send them to Jorge Ramos’ house ….
Election meddling by Venezuela according to Pence. That is an act of war according to Hillary.
If they get here before the midterms, I’m waiting for the penny to drop in some of my friends’ heads that they have serious logistical help. If that same help were applied where they originally were, it would go a long way to solving the problem.
On a side note, has anyone heard any rational explanation how Bangladeshi folks ended up in the caravan?
And sometimes fate just harmonizes events . . .
Projected path of Hurricane Willa:
Projected path of migrant caravan:
One narrative I’ve read is that the “caravan” started as 126 people who banded together to escape from an organized criminal gang in their area.
We could put up some grandstands and sell tickets. Let vendors sell hot dogs and apple pie and MAGA paraphernalia. And we’ll need Girl Scouts selling cookies. Have a college marching band render “Marrakesh Express” and Paul Simon’s “America”. Donate the proceeds to endow a Victor Davis Hanson Chair of Immigration Policies.
Someone asked the other day why the National Guard wasn’t rolling out concertina. Well, why isn’t it?
Wonder if the plan is to have D notables and their POTUS wannabes at the front of the line as they cross the border : “We March for Jobs for All Now !“
I would not be surprised to see the United Nations Refugee Agency involved somehow. It has become a game between U.S. presidents and the United Nations. As it is, our State Department places thousands of refugees in communities across the country every year. There’s a lot of bartering that goes on between the United Nations and the State Department. Even President Obama found the requests excessive at one point and refused to take in the requested number.
There are lots of anti-American, anti-Republican international groups who would love to feather their donation chests by forcing this issue in this way. That there are helpless children in this caravan would not bother these people one bit. All the better the newspaper pictures. And more donations for these groups.
The answer is right in front of us: Europe has its 12 million Middle Eastern refugees. We have–that we know of–our 12 million illegal aliens from everywhere on the planet. We don’t owe anyone anything. We can say we are meeting our humanitarian obligation already. We cannot take any more people in. We’ll take care of our 12 million; you take care of yours.
We can talk about how to fix Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to help restore civil order. Anything more than that is not open for discussion. We have our hands full financially with our existing impoverished people. We cannot add to this situation with any more destitute from anywhere else. In fact, we’ll take donations from other countries to help our destitute people.
Every year Los Angeles has a mass grave ceremony for all of the poor and unknown people who died the preceding year. In 2016 the number was 1,400 poor people. As I understand it, this happens in just about every major city in America.
This is homelessness just in Boston alone. A similar story can be told for every major city in the United States right now. (Photo credit Boston Globe.)
Why would we take in any more poor people when we can’t take good care of the ones we already have? Charity begins at home.
Hear, hear!
See, you are the nicest person. :-)
Thank you for listening. :-)
Looks that that guy hasn’t lost all his senses.
I have no compassion for them at all.
Well, no, not when they’re saying “Your president is the anti-Christ and your country is evil!” while in the same breath demanding to be let in.
Some may be saying such things, but I am unwilling to rule out the possibility that some number of people within that caravan actually are seeking aid or some hope of something better, and are thus being exploited through this stunt, only to be discarded once their usefulness is at an end. So while I am unwilling to apply a broad brush to each member of the caravan, the leaders and organizers of the thing hold the vast bulk of my disdain.
I agree there are some in the caravan who are sincere and should be allowed in. Too bad they chose this way to try it. You’re right about their being discarded once their usefulness is over. Just ask Christine Blasey Ford.
Well, I’m not necessarily thinking any should be allowed in, except by the appropriate application and process. Which I’m sure the organizers have no interest in whatsoever.
I. Don’t. Care. They know they are breaking our laws. They do not have a right to steal from America. If they want a better life, why can’t they make where they live better?
You nailed it. The organizers, and their lack of concern for their suffering human pawns, make me want to vomit.
Not just that. The logistics of moving 7000 people 1400 miles is military in size. Transport (they are not walking, not even a Legion under Caesar could cover that distance that fast), food, water, toilets, shoes etc etc etc. This is as “spontaneous’ as Hitlers invasion of Poland.
The United States gets about 300,000 to 500,000 illegal migrants a year.
Why does this caravan of ten thousand (probably less) that is now wandering around in the South of Mexico (who know how many of them will actually make it to the border?) seem like such a threat ?
Because of the 10K, or because of the 300-500k?
Is the asylum thing?
Is it that the Monroe Doctrine has had unforeseen side effects? (You broke it, you own it?) Is it a backlash against these?
Is it the Spanish speaking thing?
Neither the Right nor the Left seem to approach this entirely rationally, and I’m trying to understand why.
Serious question: Exactly who is organizing it and paying for it? If we can know that, all will be explained, I think. Are there no reporters curious to dig up that info? (Of course not. That was a silly question.)
If this was an organized effort timed to affect opinion prior to the Nov. 6 election against Trump and supporters of stronger border security, it seems to be having the opposite effect, at least in Texas (where people aren’t enamored of the idea of a horde of refugees simply forcing their way across the Rio Grande), and likely not so well in the rest of the country either, because national Democrats have been doing their best Harpo Marx impersonations on the issue (i.e. — it was far easier to get sanctaminious about the family separations earlier this year, because the families were already at the border detention areas and in U.S. custody. It’s harder to cheer on the current caravan that is well south of the U.S. border, because to the majority of the public it comes across as rooting for a new refugee crisis, and most Dems can sense that’s not a winning issue in the run-up to Election Day. They’re trying to avoid the story entirely, but the media — which thinks this public’s going to be all sympathetic to the plight of the families in the caravan — won’t let them).
Zafar, I think the problem is that there’s a principle at stake. The throng and the people supporting them are trying to establish the principle that US sovereignty and US borders are per se illegitimate. I’m pretty pro immigration, but even I can see that that’s the road to perdition. We have immigration laws and we let in a lot of immigrants legally every year, including asylum seekers. But all of the legal ones have to go through a process of seeking the right to legal residence under US law. We have to do that because the right to live and work in the US is valuable and attractive to far more people than we can accommodate all at once. We have, in effect, to ration it. This crowd is trying to bulldoze its way in to show that it is possible to overcome, rather than comply with, US law.
No doubt it was orchestrated, such things can’t happen spontaneously although the size grows spontaneously. The Venezuelan’s are not capable of organizing this, but the Cubans, who run Venezuela, are and they collaborate with our left. That would be my guess and if we’re serious we can find out who is behind it. We can follow whatever gave us the impression the Venezuelans are doing this, but we must keep after it. What we do with them isn’t as important as finding out it’s origin and funding.
We should create a UN/Mexican/US camp as the invasion begins to run out of steam and health, somewhere in Mexico. Interview and deport them from there, seeking legitimate refugees but mostly finding out who knows what about its origins.