Never ones to let a good tragedy go to waste, the open-borders crowd is trying to get as much mileage as possible out of the very sad incident of a father and daughter from El Salvador who drowned while crossing the Rio Grande last weekend. A heart-breaking occurrence yes, but it brings to mind the iconic Syrian drowned boy photo that was used to shame Europeans into accepting millions more migrants into their countries (to their own social and economic disadvantage). And the facts in that case turned out to be rather different than the carefully-crafted media narrative.
The Left prefers the emotionally-jarring impact of a photograph, or perhaps a brief video clip (frequently taken out of context), to a rational discussion of the various complexities of a particular issue. And if there was ever a complex issue it’s illegal immigration. But progressives have to advance their agenda using visual agit-prop; if they actually discussed facts, figures and realities they’d never get anywhere.
The following Twitter thread from John Hayward (Breitbart News) caught my attention because, not only does it correct the leftist narrative about this young family, it explains the socio-economic realities of Central American migration ~
The man and his wife both had jobs and a home with his mother. They made very little money and understandably wanted a better life. There is no moral, ethical, or practical universe in which the people of the United States are required to provide it.https://t.co/OI8xMCeojj
— John Hayward (@Doc_0) June 28, 2019
The man was from El Salvador, which has received over $4.4 billion in aid from the United States but still generated a tidal wave of economic migrants. It is not the fault of the American people that El Salvador cannot provide a better life for its citizens.
Accepting carefully vetted refugees fleeing dangerous persecution is very different, both in practical and ethical terms, than waving economic migrants across the border. Deliberately conflating the two is profoundly dishonest and immoral.
If Democrats think the American people ARE somehow responsible for the entire population of El Salvador, then the solution they should propose is to remove its failed government and pampered ruling class and give us the POWER commensurate with that RESPONSIBILITY […]
Democrats would give Americans no power to correct the terrible conditions in the countries from which economic migrants are flowing. We already tried sending them huge amounts of money – charity Americans were forced to pay for – and it didn’t help.
The systems in those countries are broken, so pouring money into them changes nothing. Democrats think Americans should be forced to absorb the consequences of those failed systems in perpetuity. They even hold us responsible for people who die while trying to break our laws.
Democrats envision America as the relief system for failed, corrupt, crime-ridden governments around the world. They retain all the power and privileges; we absorb the costs and take in the people failed by those systems, forever.
What would happen if America put together comprehensive plans of action that would actually improve the lives of economic migrants like the man who got his little daughter killed while trying to violate the U.S. border? Not just money but detailed reforms?
Why, we would be arrogantly informed by the rulers of those countries that we have no right to tell the wise and noble Men of the People who run El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras how to manage their affairs! We are required to silently accept everyone who flees their rule.
Democrats would force American citizens to become accomplices to crime and corruption by supporting the dismal systems that generate economic migration. We are not allowed to vote on it – or much of anything else, once migrants dilute our votes and change our political system.
Nobody wants to invade Central America and “fix” it, of course, but neither should we allow ourselves to be invaded BY it. Our sovereignty is not subordinate to theirs. Our rights are not nullified by their needs. We are not responsible for people who ignore our laws.
Sovereignty is what this is really all about: the intersection of power and responsibility. Every single Democrat candidate for president just told you American sovereignty matters much less than the sovereignty of foreign nations. Ours must be sacrificed to preserve theirs.
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Related:
Nearly 6,000 Migrants Have Died Along the Mexico-U.S. Border Since 2000 ~ This piece at the Smithsonian was published in 2014 (Guess who was in the White House?). Oddly enough, the Left and their mainstream media friends pretty much ignored the story…
In the past 14 years, more than 6,000 people have died trying to migrate through the U.S.’s southern border, a new report by the International Organisation for Migration says. Just in the past year, as many as 445 people died trying to pass into the U.S., reports the Toronto Star; that number comes from the U.S. Border Control and may be a low estimate.
