Migration and Refugees

2-17-2025

Migration and Refugees

What we are seeing is the organized transportation and movement of people many ranging from unaccompanied women and children to military age males all freshly groomed and wearing new clothes and carrying smart phones. Unaccompanied children as young as 2 years old carry no documentation other than a cell phone, and a note with a name, address and phone number of “family” where they are going to be “reunited”?

Over the past 4 years there has been a never ending procession of migrants through CBP entry points as well as crossing around Trump’s partially completed border wall or across the desert and mountainous unmanned border. Many show up with a Biden era CBP APP on their smartphones that allow them free entry and place them ahead of the line to see an immigration judge, where all too often they fail to show and there is no followup by INS interior agents.

Since World War II American presidents and congress have quibbled over reforming immigration law and have many times allocated and approved the construction of a southern border wall (fence), yet nothing has been done substantially until Trump began building a wall under his first term.

How did we get into this political mess of mass migration of undocumented migrants and those we are told are simply refugees fleeing death, torture and/or political oppression?  Not to mention the Central and South American gang members, drugs and human smugglers of those being trafficked for sex. But that doesn’t answer the question how did we get into this mess?

In 2013 the Obama administration engaged in talks leading up to a “Declaration of the 2013 High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development”. This was followed up in 2016 by the UN General Assembly discussing for the first time migration and refugees in what was termed The New York Declaration set in motion a process of intergovernmental consultations and negotiations towards the  development of a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. This process concluded on 10 December 2018 with the adoption of the Global Compact by the majority of UN Member States at an Intergovernmental Conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, followed closely by formal endorsement by the UN General Assembly on 19 December 2018.

This Global Compact is the first inter-governmentally negotiated agreement, prepared under the auspices of the United Nations, covering all dimensions of international migration in a holistic and comprehensive manner. It is a non-binding document that respects states’ sovereign right to determine who enters and stays in their territory and demonstrates commitment to international cooperation on migration. It presents a significant opportunity to improve the governance of migration, to address the challenges associated with today’s migration, and to strengthen the contribution of migrants and migration to sustainable development. The Global Compact is framed in a way consistent with target 10.7 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in which Member States committed to cooperate internationally to facilitate safe, orderly and regular migration. The Global Compact is designed to:

• Support international cooperation on the governance of international migration;
• Provide a comprehensive menu of options for States from which they can select policy options to address some of the most pressing issues around international migration; and
• Give states the space and flexibility to pursue implementation based on their own migration realities and capacities.

The New York Declaration

For the first time on 19 September 2016 Heads of State and Government came together to discuss, at the global level within the UN General Assembly, issues related to migration and refugees. This sent an important political message that migration and refugee matters have become major issues in the international agenda. In adopting the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, the 193 UN Member States recognized the need for a comprehensive approach to human mobility and enhanced cooperation at the global level and committed to:

• Protect the safety, dignity and human rights and fundamental freedoms of all migrants, regardless of their migratory status, and at all times;
• Support countries rescuing, receiving and hosting large numbers of refugees and migrants;
• Integrate migrants – addressing their needs and capacities as well as those of receiving communities – in humanitarian and development assistance frameworks and planning;
• Combat xenophobia, racism and discrimination towards all migrants;
• Develop, through a state-led process, non-binding principles and voluntary guidelines on the treatment of migrants in vulnerable situations; and
• Strengthen global governance of migration, including by bringing IOM into the UN family and through the development of a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration

Annex II of the New York Declaration set in motion a process of intergovernmental consultations and negotiations culminating in the planned adoption of the Global Compact for Migration at an intergovernmental conference on international migration in 2018.

What are the aims of the Global Compact for Migration?

The Global Compact is framed consistent with target 10.7 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in which Member States committed to cooperate internationally to facilitate safe, orderly and regular migration and its scope is defined in Annex II of the New York Declaration. It is intended to:

• Address all aspects of international migration, including the humanitarian, developmental, human rights-related and other aspects;
• Make an important contribution to global governance and enhance coordination on international migration;
• Present a framework for comprehensive international cooperation on migrants and human mobility;
• Set out a range of actionable commitments, means of implementation and a framework for follow-up and review among Member States regarding international migration in all its dimensions;
• Be guided by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda; and
• Be informed by the Declaration of the 2013 High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development.

• The development of the Global Compact for Migration – an open, transparent and inclusive process
• The Modalities Resolution for the intergovernmental negotiations of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration outlined the key elements and timeline of the process. The Global Compact was developed through an open, transparent and inclusive process of consultations and negotiations and the effective participation of all relevant stakeholders, including civil society, the private sector, academic institutions, parliaments, diaspora communities, and migrant organizations in both the intergovernmental conference and its preparatory process.

I then began looking at how these migrants are being funneled through Mexico and Canada to our nation’s borders and force-fed into our interior without consequence.

Mexico’s migration policy is sovereign, seeks to protect migrants’ rights

https://www.gob.mx/sre/prensa/mexico-s-migration-policy-is-sovereign-seeks-to-protect-migrants-rights

Under the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico was the first country to adopt the U.N. Global Compact for Migration in order to ensure a safe, orderly and regular flow of migrants. In keeping with the principles of the global compact and in contrast to the policy of previous administrations, Mexico has stopped deporting hundreds of thousands of Central American migrants.

The Mexican government has instituted a new migration policy based on two main pillars: defending migrants’ rights and taking a humanitarian approach to economic development in order to address the structural causes of migration.

Accordingly, Mexico has granted legal status to more than thirteen thousand foreign nationals who have entered the country at our southern border in order to document their entry and help some of them enter the job market. The new policy rights the fundamental wrong committed previously of condemning migrants to illegality and, therefore, to marginalization and vulnerability.

In like manner, the Mexican government is spearheading the Comprehensive Development Plan. With input from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the plan includes various projects to boost the economic development of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, thereby mitigating the structural causes that trigger migration.

The Ministries of Foreign Affairs and the Interior reiterate that Mexico’s implementation of its new migration policy is a sovereign and independent decision to put human rights and the expansion of egalitarian economic development in the region at its core.

The Government of Mexico reiterates that there is no binding agreement with the United States Government to respond to the increased flow of people, mainly families from Central America, who aspire to travel to Mexico and the United States in search of opportunity and protection.

In response to the unilateral decision of the U.S. government to implement Article 235(b)(2)(C) of its Immigration and Nationality Act, Mexico has opted to assist the migrants. For humanitarian reasons, and as a temporary measure, the Mexican government has authorized the entry of some asylum seekers from the United States while they wait for their hearing with the appropriate authorities.  The alternative, deporting them from our country, would mean denying the right of asylum that the Mexican government upholds and protects.

Mexico’s migration authorities are in ongoing communication with their U.S. counterparts in order to ensure that people cross our shared border in a safe and orderly way. In addition, the Mexican government has established specific criteria for the return of certain individuals who entered the United States to request asylum. For example, it will not admit unaccompanied minors into our territory or allow families to be separated.

Mexico respects the sovereign right of the United States to carry out its immigration programs, but we have acted and will continue to act independently and in our sovereign right when determining our own migration policy.

It became obvious (at least to me) that although Mexico has the authority and power to allow migrants into Mexico from Central & South America and other countries. However they do not have the expectation that the United States will simply allow migrants into our country. Those seeking asylum or refugee status should do so at the first country they encounter after leaving their homeland.

Americans were sold a “bill of goods” not worth the paper it was written on by a fully non-transparent government under the Biden administration and Americans have been paying the price.

The Trump administration has closed the Southern border and Mexico is guarding their Northern border with the U.S. The process of returning unlawful migrants to their home countries has begun. We are a nation of immigrants and welcome those who come here to work, for school and to lawfully migrate in order to become citizens. Those unlawful migrants who self-deport are eligible to apply in the future for lawful migrant status and will not incur a negative migration status with a court hearing or incur a ban on returning to the US. – RTM