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Some border county sheriffs say theres no crisis at the border

As politicians from both sides of the aisle claim there's a crisis at the border, sheriffs with two border counties in Arizona say they disagree with that assessment.

PHOENIX - Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, along with several Republican leaders, are calling the situation at the U.S.-Mexico Border a 'crisis.'

On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden has used the word 'crisis' recently, and both U.S. Senators from Arizona have asked for more National Guard along the border.

Related: Arizona Governor deploys National Guard to US-Mexico border

However, sheriffs with two border counties in Arizona have a very different take on current conditions.

"We have no migrant crisis at the border, but theres lots of fuzzy math going around," said Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway.

Santa Cruz County, a small county south of Tucson and north of Nogales, Mexico, has the biggest ports of entry into Arizona. Immigrant arrests in the county are up from the Trump and Obama years, but the people coming here to find work, and the overall numbers are nothing new.

"1.1 million if that continues at the exact same rate this summer, which is unlikely, but theres nothing out of the ordinary. Its practically every year since the 80s, 90s, and 2000s," said Sheriff Hathaway.

Sheriff Hathaway says it's not an immigration crisis, but an economic one on the American side of the border.

"We have an economic crisis here because the tourist visa holders still can't come in the United States, and that's costing millions of dollars every day in lost revenue," said Sheriff Hathaway.

"Whether it's a crisis in their neighborhoods, I cant speak to it, but its not a crisis right now for Pima County," said Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos.

Sheriff Nanos was born on the border, and has worked along it almost ever since. He says if the governor really wants to help, he should send more money for things like police reform, body cameras, and ankle monitors, rather than more National Guard troops.

"It might help those with mental illness or suffer from drug addiction rather than locking them all up in my jail. So yeah, if the governor really wants to help Pima county, send me some funding for one of those items," said Sheriff Nanos.

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Sheriffs with 2 Arizona border counties say there is no crisis at the US-Mexico Border - FOX 10 News Phoenix

Asylum-seeking migrant families disembark from an inflatable boat after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico in Roma, Texas, April 27, 2021.

GO NAKAMURA/Reuters

Its time to recognize that the crisis at the Mexico-United States border is Canadas problem.

Thats because, contrary to the way the U.S. media portrays it, its not really a case of thousands of people trying to enter America through Mexico as refugees, but of hundreds of thousands of people emigrating, most temporarily, out of a number of Latin American countries any way they can, during a difficult historical moment. Most arent primarily interested in being refugees, none really want to be making the trek through Mexico, and few are even aiming for the United States specifically.

Canada can have a key role here, one that also benefits us. Many of those crisis-stricken countries including Venezuela, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, Honduras and El Salvador have important relationships with Canada.

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Crises of political violence, the economic and civic collapse of Venezuela, severe natural and weather disasters, and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have caused people to seek different livelihoods outside their countries borders.

Most just need help finding a place to settle in a nearby, more stable country, such as Colombia, Mexico or Costa Rica and hundreds of thousands already have. These countries could use our help handling these populations. Those who make the dangerous journey by train and foot across the length of Mexico to the U.S. border are doing so because they know of no other option and most would instead prefer a regular, legal pathway into a country that happens to be seeking their employment. Such as Canada after all, were already welcoming a good number of them.

Biden vows action on migrants, defends border policy

For example, Canada attracts five times more Guatemalan labour migrants every year than the United States does. Our 15,000 annual Guatemalans (versus 3,000 who go to the U.S.) are mostly farm workers on seasonal visas who fly back and forth. Theyre part of a labour pool thats vital to Canadas farms (it also includes many Hondurans) and could be considerably larger. And thats aside from our permanent immigration targets of 401,000 new Canadians every year, and our smaller but also significant refugee-resettlement programs.

But the labour migrants are key because theyre often the same people who would otherwise become refugees. By shifting an influential fraction of potential refugees into more secure and beneficial forms of migration, we could play a big role in bringing stability to a volatile region and preventing a deadly asylum emergency.

Canada is really already part of the solution here Canadians just dont know that, says Andrew Selee, head of the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute. The question is, if the three countries of North America wanted to sit down and talk about a coordinated strategy to end the crisis, could Canada play a constructive role by expanding seasonal visas and resettlement? Its basically an expansion of what Canadas already doing with Guatemala and Honduras.

Mr. Selee recently coauthored a detailed proposal, with Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, that proposes a new regional migration system that would bring together the U.S., Mexico and Canada, along with successful regional partners such as Costa Rica and Colombia, to stabilize the situation and stop the deadly asylum journeys. It would involve a set of actions: agreeing on a combination of regional refugee-settlement programs in adjoining countries partly financed by the wealthier nations to the north; expanding work-visa programs and labour-migration agreements with countries such as Canada; bolstering and funding refugee-resettlement programs for Central Americans in the U.S. and Canada temporarily; creating new family-reunification programs designed to settle entire vulnerable families in new countries; and making an investment in on-the-ground programs within Latin America designed to identify people before they migrate and find them a safe destination before they flee (and maybe vaccinate them before they leave).

Many of these programs already exist in Canada theyre just lying dormant.

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Two Toronto migration specialists, Craig Damian Smith of Ryerson University and Dana Wagner of the refugee-assistance agency TalentLift, last week published a policy brief looking at Canadian programs such as the federal Economic Mobility Pathways Project, created after the 2015-16 Mideast migrant crisis to direct potential refugees into more desirable economic-migration routes that take advantage of their skills, educations and entrepreneurial ambitions. The authors suggest that Canada redirect and expand these programs to the new crises in Latin America.

This is a clear-cut case where Canada could play a leading role in ending a major crisis afflicting Mexico and the United States, in bringing stability to a dangerously volatile part of the Americas while providing ourselves with people we happen to need. It may be their border crisis, but it could be our solution.

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Opinion: Those migrants at the U.S.-Mexican border are a Canadian problem, too - The Globe and Mail

This is the third report in a four-part series that explores the social determinants of living with and in proximity to lymphatic filariasis, a neglected tropical disease.

In the one year that Gyanchand has lived with lymphatic filariasis (filaria), hes traveled from Delhi to Rae Bareli, U.P., four times for treatment. I come here every three months for treatment because my family is here and they told me to get checked here when [I] first found swelling, he says.

A fruit and vegetable vendor in Delhi, Gyanchand lives alone and works in a crowded market teeming with stagnant puddles and mosquitoes. His only opportunity to receive medication, care, and comfort is at home in Rae Bareli, where his wife and children stay. He attempted to find help in Delhi but didnt know the city well enough to find it.

Travel back and forth between the locales has become an essential and expensive part of his life. A train ticket from Rae Bareli to Delhi costs up to Rs. 200 in the cheapest Second Seater Class Section, and a bus ticket costs half of that. A travel budget of Rs. 1000-2000 a year, needed to access medication, becomes a severe strain while also trying to pay for rent, food, and other living expenses with a daily-wage income. Travel is also tinged with discomfort, as the swollen legs and lesions that accompany filaria make walking difficult.

Gyanchands story intertwines two conditions that have become almost synonymous with neglect: tropical disease and migration. Migrants, new to a city and short of means, do not know the location to which they have shifted and do not have access to safe living conditions and urban healthcare systems that can aid the prevention and management of filaria. In contradiction to popular assumption, some migrants choose to travel back home to seek help from familiar, rural healthcare systems.

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Here, it is key to understand what kind of migrants face this particular struggle. It is not the white-collar workers or the section of citizens who migrate for higher education, training and then move overseas for employment or high-end jobs, says Rinju Rasaily, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociology at Ambedkar University, Delhi.It is the insignificant bulk of the population who, given the rising needs of a neo-liberal world, undoubtedly triggered by poverty and despair, seek to migrate out of their villages and small towns for jobs, jobs that are precarious and thus uncertain; taking the risks of living in a city space for a better future.

According to Indias 2011 Census, more than 139 million internal migrants move around India, within and between states. Large, urban cities like Delhi and Mumbai attract most migrants, sharing a combined migrant population of 9.9 million between them.

Working-class migrants in big cities live and travel in highly clustered conditions close to open gutters all of which lead to a higher risk of exposure to filarial worm-carrying mosquitoes. This clustering is not a new phenomenon. As Indian cities grew, they attracted large numbers of migrants, especially after the 1940s, when the population in cities, according to the census, grew exponentially. Often poorer migrants settled in already populated areas of the city, creating pressures on existing drainage systems, says Aditya Ramesh, Ph.D., who researches water, infrastructures, and ecologies at the University of Manchester. The colonial government, when they started creating drainage systems from the 1850s, paid little attention to regions where the urban poor lived. They created drainage systems largely to protect British cantonments and to try and keep sewage out of these areas. Naalas (open gutters) therefore were the only affordable way in which dense urban settlements could dispose of waste. Considering the pressures on them, it is no surprise that as infrastructural systems, they are stressed.

Bear in mind as well, that the regions around the naalas (gutters) were often government or common land, and the only spaces where migrants could find a space to build a shanty, Ramesh adds.

A significant number of migrants originate from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, coincidentally two states that share a significant burden of filaria cases in India, alongside Jharkhand, West Bengal,Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha.

Though working-class migrants face a higher risk of water-borne tropical diseases like filaria, they do not receive close healthcare attention. The vulnerability of migrants is unimaginable, given their working and living conditions. Data on health expenditure clearly state that the out-of-pocket [healthcare] expenditure is exorbitant in India. There is undoubtedly an enormous burden on government hospitals, dispensaries, health care centers, and mohalla clinics in Delhi, while the private health care services cater to the massive Indian middle class, Rasaily says. She adds that only a negligible percentage of urban migrants have health insurance, making it harder to access subsidized healthcare.

Work conditions may also force migrants to make choices under duress, choices that put their health at risk. Employment often involves long hours that lead to a deprioritization of seeking help. This means chronic conditions like filaria get further aggravated. There is also a large reliance of this section of our population on the un-registered medical practitioners who usually administer stronger dosage of medication for immediate relief, Rasaily says. Though immediate relief allows migrants to function, it eventually takes a serious toll on long-term health.

Related on The Swaddle:

SC Directs States To Look Into the Condition of Migrant Workers Children

This negotiation between work and health is not uncommon for individuals with filaria, as the disease is incurable and causes swollen limbs, flashes of pain, and reduced mobility. For working-class migrants, the drop in productivity is devastating, especially since most are paid by the day. Researchers have documented severe drops in filaria patients ability to perform domestic and economic labor in both Odisha and Tamil Nadu, with several cases leading to total disability.

The neglect of migrant workers with filariasis is as much a labor issue as it is a public health issue. Though trade unions have fought for decent working conditions for migrants in the past and helped create several equitable labor laws, there is no uniform health and safety law for working-class individuals yet; the laws that do exist are specific to certain industries (for instance, the Plantation Labour Act, 1951; the Mines Act, 1952).

As health care involves huge expenditure to the government, it has remained a central reason for the non-prioritization for the migrant population as well, Rasaily adds. In terms of intervention that could help migrant workers, I feel that a revisit of the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service), 1979, is important. It is also crucial that there should be a budgetary enhancement towards all the state departments of labor so that labor laws could be enforced, data banks could be created, and timely interventions could be made for example, at inter-state borders, bus stands, railway stations, et cetera. And importantly, there should be inter-departmental sync, such as [between] Regional Labour Institutes, DGFASLI [Directorate General Factory Advice Services and Labor Institutes] that operate under the same ministry, i.e Labour and Employment, GOI.

While rural areas are small and close-knit, urban areas are vast and lonely.Rural migrants like Gyanchand face a significant loss in the absence of community support. Village kinship ties are important means to find employment and support in cities. In rural areas, there is also more familiarity and comfort in relying on support systems, like borrowing from friends and relatives, which is often not an option in an alien urban environment. As Gyanchand said in the beginning, he didnt just return to Rae Bareli because he couldnt findhelp in the city, he also returned because that is where his home and community are.

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A Public Health Crisis Looms at the Intersection of Migration and Tropical Diseases - The Swaddle

The latest wave of COVID-19 in India has created a severe humanitarian crisis. The country is struggling amidst a shortage of medical oxygen, hospital beds, ambulance vans, essential medicines, and basic equipment.

There are nearly four million active COVID-19 cases and more than 204,832 deaths across India. This second and more deadly wave of the coronavirus crisis in India is creating a rapidly evolving and grim situation. There are sporadic night curfews and lockdown-like measures across states that have once again triggered an exodus of migrant workers. As they jostle to catch the first train or bus home, most barely have the money to make this journey, but must try anyway to avoid a repeat of last year when they were left with no option but to walk thousands of miles in the scorching heat.

These migrant workers and many others who lost their jobs are still struggling to get back on their feet. Over the last year, Oxfam has been working to help people survive the initial crisis with food and clean water, sanitation, hygiene, cash, and protective equipment. We have assisted people in 16 states in India.

Oxfam is working with local organizations and government officials to assess the needs of people and public hospitals. As we raise funds to meet the increased demands in India, we are building on our program work over the last year, including:

In a crisis such as this, women and girls, the aged, people with disabilities, and other marginalized people will suffer the worst. As people grapple to make ends meet, Oxfam is working hard to ensure that inclusive relief efforts will continue to be at the heart of our program in India.

Globally, Oxfam is mobilizing resources to help people in India while also advocating for a Peoples Vaccine: a patent-free, mass produced, and fairly distributed vaccine available free of charge to everyone, rich and poor alike. In the United States, Oxfam is urging President Biden to temporarily waive intellectual property rules at the World Trade Organization to allow factories in India and other countries to produce more vaccine.

Fatality numbers are rising rapidly in India. Its a race against time to help as many people as possible. We urgently need your support.

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Oxfam responding to deadly wave of COVID-19 in India - Oxfam America

Satyajit Ray had an inedible mark on the Indian cinema. His films are admired by cinephiles all over the world.

May 2 marks 100 years since Satyajit Ray was born, and to celebrate his 100th birth anniversary, an artist paid the legendary filmmaker a poignant and relevant tribute. A Mumbai-based artist named Aniket Mitra celebrated the historic day by reimagining Satyajit Ray's iconic film posters amid the Covid times.

Aniket Mitra used ten films by Satyajit Ray to depict the Covid-19 crisis going on in India. Posters of films like Pather Panchali, Devi, Nayak, Seemabaddha, Jana Aranya, Mahanagar, Ashani Sanket and more, were used to show the citizens' struggle during the second wave of the deadly virus.

The poster of Pather Panchali shows a healthcare worker driving an ambulance while wearing a PPE suit. The poster of Devi shows a healthcare worker helping a newborn baby, both dressed in protective equipment.

The poster of Seemabaddha shows police officials, who have been working on the frontline during the pandemic, wearing face masks and a face shield. Jana Aranya shows pyres burning in a cemetery, showcasing the deaths due to Covid-19.

The poster of Mahanagar showed the oxygen supply crisis in India that has become the cause for many losing their lives during the second wave. The poster of Abhijan showed the migrant crisis.

Take a look at the poignant creations by Aniket Mitra:

Sharing the post on Facebook, Aniket Mitra said that given the current situation in the country, he was paying homage to the renowned filmmaker by highlighting the plight of the common man.

The posters created a storm on social media and earned praise from netizens. At the time of writing this article, the post had 4,000 likes and 3,200 shares.

India saw a slight dip in the daily Covid-19 cases on Monday as it registered over 3.68 lakh fresh cases and 3,417 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the Union health ministry.

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Artist recreates Satyajit Ray's film posters on 100th birth anniversary to depict Covid crisis - India Today