WASHINGTON – Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation published congressional testimony by John Davidson reporting on the humanitarian crisis at the southern border with Mexico. Davidson, a senior correspondent at the Federalist and a senior fellow for the Foundation’s Right on Immigration initiative, recounts the experience of border towns in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley and the city of El Paso as a major influx of migrants cross the border due to Washington DC’s broken immigration policy.
“Without a doubt, there is a crisis at the southern border,” Davidson told the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. “But it’s a deeply misunderstood crisis that’s being driven by specific factors and disproportionately affecting specific regions of the border, primarily the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso.”
Davidson reported his findings as part of the Senate HSGA’s hearing on “Unprecedented Migration at the U.S. Southern Border: By the Numbers.”
Davidson identifies three factors encouraging migrants to make the treacherous journey north to the United States. He cites the migrants’ expectation that they will not be detained for long, smugglers’ financial interest in trafficking the migrants, and poor conditions in the migrants’ home countries.
“Persistent poverty, violence, and corruption, combined with the fear that it’s not going to be this easy to get into the U.S. forever, is prompting families to come now,” says Davidson.
“Border security is part of the solution, but so is congressional action. As long as Central American families know they can gain entry to the U.S. by initiating asylum proceedings upon crossing the border, this will continue. As long as cartels and criminal networks know they can profit from trafficking migrant families to the border, they will do so. And as long as conditions in Central America continue to fester, families in those countries who can pay for it will seek a better life for their children by traveling north.”
Read the full testimony here:
https://www.texaspolicy.com/capitol-hill-testimony-border-cities-in-crisis/