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By Larry Whitlow| Bucks County Courier Times

First and foremost, I love this country and I've always been proud to say I'm an American no matter where I have traveled. Lately it seems that there are many of my fellow citizens that don't share those sentiments.

Complaints about our sometimes-dysfunctional government which is certainly justified, protests, racial strife, gun violence and immigration problems just to name a few are in the news every day.

So, I decided to sit down and do some research as to where things are better for us to go so that we can live a more peaceful and less turbulent life. I didn't have to look too far. Canada.

Here are some very interesting facts:

What really stands out isCanada's immigration policy, which is such a hot button topic here. Canada actively solicits immigrants and has done so for years. Over 20% of all Canadians are foreign born. The obvious question is 'Why is Canadian public opinion on immigration so different from ours?"

The answers are quite interesting.

Canadians are convinced of the positive economic benefits of immigration and believe immigrants create jobs. Most immigrants to Canada are authorized under a points system tied to their credentials and employment potential. About half of Canadian immigrants have bachelor's degrees and evidence suggests that the balance of immigrants are highly skilled and net contributors.

Secondly, Canadians see multiculturalism as an important component of national identity. Other factors allow Canada to be more inviting. The country has very little to worry about from illegal immigration. Like the U.S., it shares a long southern border with a country suffering from high levels of crime,gun violence, unemployment and income inequality.

But there aren't millions of Americans yearning to get into Canada. That reduces unauthorized immigration and eases public anxiety about it like we have here.

Incidentally, the emphasis on multiculturalism points to an interesting normative distinction between the U.S. and Canada. Both this country and Canada have robust legal protections against discrimination.

But here you rarely hear somebody advocate for immigration on the grounds that it adds to the social fabric of the country. Apparently when that argument arises in Canada it has a humanitarian dimension.

Canada has its problems to be sure, but it seems to have a much better handle on the many issues that plague our country.

Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to suggest that our so-called divided political leaders in Congress and the Senate who never seem to compromise on anything for the American good should visit our neighbors to the north on one of their many recesses and holiday breaks and take a working vacation to be schooled on how to govern.

As for me, despite all our supposed problems in this great country, I'm staying put in Bucks County. Life is good. For those who continue to protest and complain, pack some warm clothes and look to the north if they will have you.

Larry Whitlow is a resident of New Hope.

Link:
Like a good neighbor, Canada is there - Bucks County Courier Times

(The Center Square) As the crisis at the southern border continues to grow worse, a top Biden administration immigration official has been removed.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol announced Thursday that Raul Ortiz would take over as the new Chief of U.S. border patrol to replace Rodney S. Scott, who served in the role for 17 months, part of his 29-year career. Notably, Scott supported former President Donald Trumps border wall and was removed as the Biden administration takes increasing criticism over its handling of the flood of illegal immigration at the border.

I personally thank Rodney S. Scott for his 29 years of service with the U.S. Border Patrol and for his seventeen months of service as Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, Acting Commissioner Troy Miller said. He has dedicated his career to public service, and I am grateful for the depth of experience and knowledge he has brought to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The announcement comes a day ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris visit to the southern border. She has taken heat for weeks for not visiting the border after Biden tapped her to head up the immigration crisis earlier this year.

Harris will visit El Paso, Texas, with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Former President Donald Trump has been a steady critic of Harris and has planned his own border visit with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott June 30.

"After months of ignoring the crisis at the Southern Border, it is great that we got Kamala Harris to finally go and see the tremendous destruction and death that they've created a direct result of Biden ending my very tough but fair Border policies," Trump said in a statement after Harris announcement. "Harris and Biden were given the strongest Border in American history. And now, it is by far the worst in American history."

The calls for Harris to visit have grown louder as federal data shows a major increase in illegal immigration this year.

CBP released immigration data earlier this year that showed agents encountered 172,000 illegal immigrants attempting to cross the southern border in March, a major increase from the previous month and much higher than the same time last year. Those numbers have remained high since then, even increasing by several thousand.

A group of House Republicans called on Biden to replace Harris as head of the immigration issue last week.

The Biden administration has directly undermined our nations sovereignty, security, and well-being with the Biden border crisis, said Mike Howell, former Department of Homeland Security oversight counsel and expert at the Heritage Foundation. It is a constitutional crisis when those charged with keeping us safe and enforcing our laws are instead encouraging, facilitating, and rewarding an invasion on our states and local communities. As the administration continues to take steps to make matters worse, their motivations are made plain for all to see. This crisis is by design, and removing what little protections that remain for this country proves that point beyond dispute.

See the article here:
Top immigration official ousted as border crisis worsens - The Center Square

Keely Sullivan is a freelance journalist.

European conservatives go-to model for ending illegal immigration doesnt look so solid anymore. For the first time in decades, a court in Australia has freed an inmate from the Pacific nations zero-tolerance immigrant detention system, calling into question the legal foundation of how it handles asylum seekers.

European migration hawks have long eyed Australias approach because it worked. Though decried by human rights advocates, the systems supporters note that Australia has had next to no illegal sea arrivals since 2013. Instead, migrants intercepted at sea have often been diverted to processing camps on the Pacific islands of Manus and Nauru, stranding them there with no guarantee of release.

A lawsuit filed by Ahmed Mahmoud, a 29-year-old Syrian national, calls that system into question. A former legal resident of Australia who had lost his visa after an assault conviction in 2011, Mahmoud was freed from the system after nearly six years, after a court ruled that his long-term detention was illegal. He had bounced between 11 different detention centers including Christmas Island, halfway between Australia and Indonesia in the Indian Ocean.

Opponents of Australias system say Mahmouds case AJL20 vs. Commonwealth of Australia sets a precedent with important implications for how long Australia can keep asylum seekers in detention.

Any time that the court expresses limitations on the governments power to detain people is so important, said David Burke, legal director for Human Rights Law Centre. The case, he added, was effectively a clarification of the limits of when the government can do that. The case was decided in September. The Australian government is currently appealing the ruling.

The ruling is restricted to Australia, but critics of the countrys immigration policy say they hope it will cause Europeans looking to the country to reconsider.

The idea of stopping immigration by outsourcing responsibility to other countries has been gathering steam on the Continent. In a December 2016 interview with POLITICO, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz then foreign minister endorsed the Australian approach and called for the EU to impose a similar system. In the U.K., Home Secretary Priti Patel has also advocated for an Australia-style system that included offshoring illegal refugee arrivals to Britain.

And in 2018, citing the ongoing migrant boat traffic in the Mediterranean, the EUs General Secretariat of the Council urged the European Council and Commission to study the feasibility of an offshore model similar to Australias.

The country that has taken the most practical steps so far to set up such a system is Denmark, where Immigration Minister Mattias Tesfaye signed an agreement with the Rwandan government widely-viewed as the first step toward opening an overseas asylum processing center there, 9,000 kilometers from European shores.

But while the system appeals to politicians hoping to look tough on migration, human rights advocates say it takes an unacceptable toll on those caught in the system.

Amnesty International has called Australias system a deliberate abuse of cruelty and a nightmare for asylum seekers, who have alleged physical abuse, sexual assault and insufficient medical care. Harsh detention policies have some populist appeal, particularly around election time, said Graham Thom, a refugee advocate with Amnesty International Australia.

A 2018 UNHCR finding noted a pervasive sense of helplessness and hopelessness among asylum seekers and refugees on Manus Island, citing declining mental health, insufficient assistance with bureaucracy, rough living conditions and uncertainty.

Copying Australia would be difficult in Europe, said Lina Vosyliute, a research fellow at Brussels-based Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). Where Australian law is not always adhered to in offshore locations under the Australian system, EU laws and jurisdiction would be under an EU offshore system, including due process and human rights protections.

Wherever EU money is going, EU values and obligations are following, Vosyliute said.

The Australian offshore model currently offers no path to residency for refugees, who are instructed to settle permanently in a third nation, seek asylum elsewhere or return to their home country. If they cant or wont, they are left indefinitely in internment. The average length of detention in Australia has risen from four months to nearly two years since 2013.

I have met people in detention who havent got a lawyer for half a decade, said Alison Battisson, the lawyer representing Mahmoud. Its unlikely such a system would be ruled legal under EU law.

Opponents of the Australian system say they will use the Mahmoud decision to slow momentum for offshoring in Europe. This wonderful system that youre trying to promote does have cracks in it, said Judith Sunderland, associate director for Human Rights Watchs Europe and Central Asia division. We would certainly try to use it to shift the debate.

The decision would set the precedent for maybe Danish officials, who are thinking to do something like Australia did, said Vosyliute. This could be a good indication that its a no go for policymakers.

Here is the original post:
Doubts rise over Australias offshore handling of refugees - POLITICO Europe

The American Farm Bureau Federation joined all 50 state Farm Bureaus and Puerto Rico Farm Bureau in sending a letter today urging the Biden administration to address the surge of undocumented immigrants entering the United States. The increase in illegal immigration is severely impacting farm and ranch families, putting property and personal safety at risk. The letter was sent to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.

We have been listening to the concerns of our members and hearing how their livelihoods are being affected by the surge on the border, the letter states. They (farmers) shared how their crops and property are being damaged, which in turn has caused financial hardship. For example, these landowners are experiencing cut fences, destroyed crops, compromised water sources, vandalism, litter on their property and more. Most importantly, the security and safety of these families are at stake given the current circumstances.

The letter points out that local and state border security resources have been exhausted, leaving little help for farmers and ranchers. It highlights the problem of human smugglers, known as Coyotes, explaining that landowners live in fear while Coyotes reap a windfall from leaving people destitute.

Human smugglers (Coyotes) are making false promises and doing whatever it takes to get paid and get away, including jeopardizing lives and property, the letter continues. In their desperation to evade law enforcement, Coyotes abandon people, steal vehicles, vandalize property and threaten the safety and livelihoods of farmers and ranchers. They are often criminals who smuggle drugs and firearms into the country, frequently leaving them on farmers and ranchers property, causing unrest for farm and ranch families.

The letter asks the federal government to provide additional resources to secure the U.S. border.

Read the full letter.

Contact: Mike TomkoDirector, Communications(202) 406-3642miket@fb.orgBailey CorwineMedia Relations Specialist(202) 406-3643baileyc@fb.org

Read more:
Farm Bureau Urges Administration to Address Surge of Undocumented Immigrants - Farm Bureau News

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All eight Democratic mayoral candidates -- Ray McGuire, Maya Wiley, Andrew Yang, Scott Stringer, Shaun Donovan, Eric Adams, Kathryn Garcia and Dianne Morales -- during the second mayoral debate on June 2, 2021.WABC-TV

Every single one of the eight Democrats running for mayor vowed to protect illegal immigrants from deportation, solidifying the Big Apples often infamous status as a sanctuary city.

The mayoral wannabes doubled down on current Mayor de Blasios approach of barring local authorities from reporting the immigration status of residents to federal authorities during their second televised debate on WABC-TV Channel 7 Wednesday.

We have to be a true sanctuary city. We have to live up to our values, which means making investments in our families regardless of documentation, said former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, who recently moved into the top tier of candidates.

Garcia said she worked to provide free food to needy New Yorkers during the coronavirus pandemic, regardless of their immigration status.

Were a sanctuary city, this is about respect, its about dignity, its about support, its about those who have allowed the city and sacrificed for this city to be where it is as we managed through COVID, said former Citigroup executive Ray McGuire.

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang, the son of legal Taiwanese immigrants, said, I appreciate anyone who comes to this country or New York City for a better life.

And Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said migrants were his neighbors growing up in Queens.

My mother worked two jobs to provide for the six of us and we had a group of undocumented residents that lived in our community, Adams said.

The other candidates city comptroller Scott Stringer, former Obama housing secretary Shaun Donovan and nonprofit leader Dianne Morales also voiced their support for the Big Apple as a sanctuary city.

De Blasio repeatedly tangled with former President Donald Trump over the policy with Trump threatening to withhold federal funding from the city until a judge blocked the move.

Given that the vast majority of the citys voters are registered Democrats, the winner of the Democratic mayoral primary on June 22 will most likely succeed de Blasio at City Hall.

Read the rest here:
Next mayor wants NYC to be even more of a 'sanctuary' for illegal immigrants - New York Post