Archive for the ‘Migrant Crisis’ Category

How the refugee crisis created two myths of Angela Merkel – The Guardian

When Angela Merkel steps down as chancellor once Germanys elections later this month produce a new government, the tributes will centre on her role as the figurehead of western liberalism; an island of stability, caution and openness in an era marked by turbulence and far-right reaction. She will be remembered for serious work, stable leadership and having a gift for political compromise, wrote Ishaan Tharoor in the Washington Post last week. When she faced off against Donald Trump after his inauguration in 2017, some newspapers dubbed her the new leader of the free world.

Fundamental to this image is the intervention she made in late summer 2015, at the height of Europes refugee crisis. Wir schaffen das well manage this was Merkels public statement as thousands of people, mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, were making their way through Turkey, Greece and the Balkans to western Europe. By declaring Germany and, by extension, Europe open to refugees, she was making a bold, pragmatic statement of intent.

Yet two contradictory myths have grown up around the wir schaffen das moment, both of which overstate the significance of her intervention and mischaracterise its effects. The populist right blames Merkel for prompting one of the largest mass migrations in the continents recent history, a catastrophic mistake, as Trump later put it, that would undermine Europes security and identity through an overwhelming foreign intrusion.

Liberals, meanwhile, treat it as a triumph. Merkels stance, in this telling, held true to the values that supposedly underpin the European project the EU, after all, is the only geopolitical bloc to have been awarded the Nobel peace prize and showed that a crisis could be met with compassion.

In truth, Merkels contribution to Europes politics of immigration went much further than wir schaffen das, and her legacy is far more mixed. As an investigation by Die Zeit has since shown, wir schaffen das did not, for the most part, encourage migration: it acknowledged a reality that already existed.

The refugee crisis had already been under way for several months by the summer of 2015, with people motivated to travel more by what was pushing them from their homes than the reception they expected in Europe. Syrians in 2015, for instance, were facing a worsening conflict, decreasing food rations from aid agencies, and employment bans in Lebanon and Turkey, where most Syrian refugees have settled. When Germany announced in early September 2015, a few days after Merkels speech, that it would keep its borders open to refugees who were heading westwards from the Keleti railway station in Budapest, people had been travelling for months already.

Whats more, Europes crisis the chaotic and deadly arrival of people not just through Greece but across the central Mediterranean from Africa was in large part a product of the continents own border policies, which had closed off safe routes to asylum and funnelled people into dangerous bottlenecks. Germany under Merkel, as the EUs most powerful member, played a key role in creating the problem. It helped maintain a system in which border security was given higher priority than refugee reception between 2007 and 2013, according to Amnesty International, the EU spent 2bn on the former, and only 700m on the latter. Likewise, Merkels insistence on punitive austerity as the solution to Europes earlier economic crisis fatally weakened the capacity of frontline states such as Greece to respond to greater numbers of refugees at a crucial moment.

Even the moment of openness that wir schaffen das expressed was short-lived, with Germany soon working to rebuild and strengthen Fortress Europe. By mid-September 2015, Germany had introduced temporary controls on its border with Austria, the beginning of a process that would eventually see migration routes through south-eastern Europe closed off. A few months later, Merkel was a leading proponent of the 2016 deal that effectively trapped many refugees in Turkey, while Germany has done nothing to challenge the EUs authoritarian turn that has made search and rescue in the Mediterranean almost impossible. Merkel may have been a bulwark against far-right domination of European politics, but the price was to absorb some of the far-rights agenda on border control.

Yet while Merkel did not radically alter the European course of the crisis, she shifted the tone of debate at a crucial moment. Fleeting as it was, this mattered. Its effects can be seen in the way German society accommodated the 1.7 million people who claimed asylum there between 2015 and 2019. Despite the dire predictions from the right, this has been an undoubted success: a survey published last year suggested that refugees who arrived in Germany between 2013 and 2016 were finding jobs more rapidly than in previous years. As the Guardian reported last year, another survey suggested that more than 80% of refugee children felt that they belonged in Germany and were welcome. The xenophobic backlash, playing on fears of crime or terrorism, is real, but it is something that can be and is being challenged.

Britains government makes an instructive comparison: even as it proclaims its generosity towards a small fraction of the people currently trying to flee Afghanistan (the official scheme promises to resettle 20,000 people over five years), this is drowned out by its authoritarian posturing. The latest of these, a promise to turn around migrant boats in the Channel, one of the worlds busiest shipping lanes, risks deadly consequences if it ever comes to pass. The response to recent Afghan arrivals sustained by a huge volunteer effort itself reveals the shoddiness of Britains asylum system: why is it being left to volunteers and charities to provide essentials such as clothes?

Ultimately, Merkels legacy tells us less about one politicians actions than about what can be done if a society has the will to help people in need. That is a collective effort. But the myths and symbols politicians trade in have the capacity to enable such efforts, or to destroy them. In Britain, it often feels like the debate on asylum is dominated by a competition to see who can sound the toughest: between politicians who enthusiastically push a hard-right agenda, and those who purport to be liberals but take a tough stance because they think its what the public wants.

This goes beyond the peculiar cruelties of our current government: it is the product of years of xenophobia encouraged by the rightwing press, and will take a huge effort to unpick. But Merkel should remind us, however inconsistent her actions might have been in reality, that there is always an alternative.

Daniel Trilling is the author of Lights in the Distance: Exile and Refuge at the Borders of Europe and Bloody Nasty People: the Rise of Britains Far Right

This article was amended on 22 September 2021, as it suggested that more than half of refugees in Germany were in work, but this was drawn from a study that suggested that 49% of those who had been in the country for more than five years were employed.

Read more:
How the refugee crisis created two myths of Angela Merkel - The Guardian

Migrant crisis, debt ceiling showdown and a judges ruling on vaccinating a child – NewsNation Now

CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) Tonights show begins with a look at the migrant crisis along the southern border.

Former Chief U.S. Border Patrol and retired Acting ICE directorRonald Vitello analyzes the situation.

Sheila Cherfilus McCormick, daughter of Haitian immigrants and current Florida Democratic Congressional candidate, talks about what the U.S. should do to address the crisis.

NewsNations Brian Entin gives the latest updates on the Gabby Petito case. Former FBI agent Stuart Kaplan explains what tactics the search crews use.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, and The Hills Julia Manchester explain the debt ceiling and what Congress can do about it.

Melissa Fallon does not want her daughter vaccinated, but a judge recently sided with the girls father, who does want her to get the shot. Fallon joins the program to explain her side. Attorney Wendy Patrick explains the law at work in this case.

Watch The Donlon Report weeknights at 7/6c.

Link:
Migrant crisis, debt ceiling showdown and a judges ruling on vaccinating a child - NewsNation Now

Texas AG rips admins handling of migrant crisis: Joe Biden ‘invited them in,’ in violation of federal law – Fox Business

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argues "the message is very clear" from the Biden administration on immigration as border crisis continues.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton took aim at the Biden administration during an appearance on "Mornings with Maria" Tuesday over the migrant crisis unraveling at the southern border, arguing the president "invited" migrants in under "violation of federal law."

KEN PAXTON: This illegal immigration problem, it wasn't an accident. Joe Biden invited them in, in violation of federal law. He's been doing that from the beginning. He gave Haitians special protection so that they wouldn't be deported and sent the message, just like he's been doing from day one of his administration.

FEDS RELEASING 'NUMEROUS' MIGRANTS FAR FROM SOUTHERN BORDER IN 'CATCH AND RELEASE' SYSTEM 'ON A GRANDER SCALE'

The message is very clear: 'We have federal laws; we're not going to follow them. I'm not going to follow them. Come to Texas, come to Arizona, come to our country. We'll let you in. We're not worried about any of the problems associated with it.' That is the reality we have to accept.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on the overwhelmed border as Texas sees surge in migrants, Biden's immigration policies and the country's national security.

More:
Texas AG rips admins handling of migrant crisis: Joe Biden 'invited them in,' in violation of federal law - Fox Business

Ted Cruz says migrant crisis grew from 900 to 15,000 in weeks after Biden canceled flights to Haiti – Texasnewstoday.com

Ted Cruz has slammed Joe Bidens chaotic management of the migrant border crisis, saying thousands of desperate Haitians rushed to Texas after the president canceled deportation flights.

Up to 15,000 migrants have been living in squalid conditions in an impromptu camp that sprang up under a bridge spanning the Rio Grande from the Texas town Del Rio to Mexicos Ciudad Acuna.

The Department of Homeland Security say they have removed 4,600 people in recent days from the site but have not revealed how many have been released into the US.

The White House has also refused to answer when, if ever, Biden has visited the border, even in his previous roles as vice president and senator.

Following the recent crackdown in response to the huge influx, hundreds of migrants have instead headed to Mexicos refugee agencies and shelters amid the chaotic scenes.

Speaking to Fox News Laura Ingraham, Cruz, a Republican Texas senator, said: Whats happening in Del Rio really illustrates the cause-and-effect of the Biden border disaster. To really understand it, you have to go back to September 8.

Up to 15,000 migrants have been living in squalid conditions in an impromptu camp that sprang up under a bridge spanning the Rio Grande

Migrants seeking refuge in the US wade through the Rio Grande river from Ciudad Acuna in Mexico

This overhead photo shows some of the hundreds of Texas state SUVs used to form a de-facto steel barrier along the United States-Mexico border in Del Rio, Texas

Ted Cruz has slammed Joe Bidens management of the migrant border crisis, saying thousands of Haitians rushed to Texas after the president canceled deportation flights

On September 8, under that bridge, there were, on any given day, between 700 and 1,000 illegal immigrants, mostly from Haiti.

On September 8 there were roughly 900 Haitians that were scheduled to be on airplanes to go back to Haiti and the Biden administration canceled those flights.

They said, Were not gonna deport you. You can stay here. You can remain in America.

And what happened was simple. Those 900 Haitians, they pulled out their phones. And they got their phone and they called their families, they called their friends. They texted their family and friends.

Migrants have been usingFacebook, YouTube and WhatsApp to share detailed instructions with friends and family back home on how to cross the border into the US, it was recently revealed.

Migrants, many of them from Haiti, are pictured wading back and forth between Texas and Mexico on Wednesday. At the weekend an estimated 14,000 migrants were sheltering in Del Rio

The White House has refused to answer when, if ever, Biden has visited the border, even in his previous roles as vice president and senator

A photo from September 22 shows migrants being routed out of a makeshift border camp after being processed by US officials. The White House has pledged to deport most of the migrants back to Haiti under Title 42, but reports indicate thats not the case for some being released

There has been a stream of migrants flooding into the US since the start of Joe Bidens presidency.

But recent weeks have seen a huge uptick of people trying to enter Texas via the Rio Grande, mostly from Haiti.

The island nation has been dogged by crime, poverty and natural disasters, with a recent earthquake displacing thousands, fuelling a further rush to the US.

The Biden administration put a hold on deportation flights in response to the earthquake, allowing thousands to gather in camps in Del Rio.

The suspension has since been reversed, with flights recommencing Sunday.

Under Title 42, migrants can be repatriated to their home nations without the possibility of requesting asylum due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cruz continued: You had 700 people on September 8. I was down in Del Rio eight days later on September 16. The day I was there, 700 people had become 10,503. It took eight days for that to happen.

Within a couple of days that 10,000 had become 15,000 and it was straight cause-and-effect. The word went out that the Biden administration is not going to enforce the law.

And if youre from Haiti, come to Del Rio because that means you get to stay, and thats whats produced this disaster.

Biden initially suspended repatriation flights to Haiti after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people and damaged more than 100,000 homes.

But he has since stepped up the deportation blitzin order to curb the number of undocumented migrants flooding into Del Rio as thousands continued to arrive.

The official line is that Haitians are being expelled from the US back to the crisis-stricken Caribbean nation under a Donald Trump-era rule.

Under Title 42, migrants can be repatriated to their home nations without the possibility of requesting asylum due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some 523 Haitians have since been deported to their homeland on four flights, with repatriations set to continue on a regular basis, the Department of Homeland Security said.

But thousands of migrants have also been freed into the US on a very, very large scale rather than being flown out as the Biden administration promised, according to officials. Its estimated as many as 5,000 migrants have been allowed in.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been forced to use unprecedented methods to prevent more from entering his state by creating a steel barrier of hundreds of vehicles at the border.

Migrants exit a Border Patrol bus and prepare to be received by the Val Verde Humanitarian Coalition after crossing the Rio Grande on Wednesday

A young child clings to their father as he wades across the river into the United States

They are lined up outside Del Rio in Texas, which has seen an influx of 14,600 migrants who crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into the US. An estimated 8,600 remained in the town of 35,000 people as of Tuesday night, with 1,083 so far deported back to Haiti

Abbott visited the site on Tuesday and praised DPS and Texas National Guard for creating the barrier by using hundreds of state-owned vehicles, almost all of which appear to be bulky SUVs.

Unlike Abbott, Biden is yet to witness the scenes of chaos firsthand, where migrants are living in squalid conditions and forced to sleep on the ground under makeshift tents from discarded clothing and tree branches in searing heat.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was pressed on whether Biden had visited the southern border at all in his life but she said she could not provide a date.

The president has frequently visited areas affected by natural disasters but is yet to make a trip to the current crisis emerging in Texas.

The makeshift border camp at one point swelled to more than 14,000 migrants, with this photo emphasizing just how large the encampment has become

Del Rio in Texas, which has seen an influx of 14,600 migrants who crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into the US. An estimated 8,600 remained in the town of 35,000 people as of Tuesday night, with 1,083 so far deported back to Haiti. Thousands more have been released into the US

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said: Has Joe Biden ever been to the border? Its a question that needs to be answered by the president, who is presiding over the most disastrous border crisis in decades.

The RNC Research team investigated and has been unable to find a single example of Biden visiting the border in at least a decade, even when he was Obamas border czar. Biden created a humanitarian crisis at the border and refuses to take responsibility for it.

The buck stops with him, and it is long past time for Biden to make the trip, see the devastating impacts of his open border policies for himself, and address the crises his failed policies created.

Filippo Grandi, the head of the UN refugee agency, has warned that US expulsions to such a volatile situation might violate international law.

The chaotic scenes at the border and news of the expulsion flights convinced some Haitian migrants transiting through Mexico that it would be better to petition for legal status there, rather than risk crossing the U.S. border.

My thinking is to find a better life, wherever I find it I never said it had to be in the United States, said Wilner Plaisir, a Haitian asylum seeker waiting outside the offices of the Mexican refugee agency COMAR in Mexico City on Wednesday.

John Rourke on Wednesday night told of the distressing scenes he saw in Del Rio, Texas

May 22 2021: Department of Homeland Security announces Haitians in US will be granted Temporary Protection Status (TPS), meaning they cant be deported and can apply for documentation that allows them to work

July 7: Haitian President Jovenel Moise is assassinated at his presidential palace in Port-au-Prince

August 14: Haiti is hit by magnitude 7.2 earthquake, killing at least 2,000

September 17: An estimated 12,000 migrants suddenly arrive in Del Rio, Texas, after crossing the Rio Grande River from Mexico. Many had been granted refugee status in Brazil and Chile after an earlier quake in 2010

September 18: Biden administration announces it will swiftly deport Haitians who cross into the US from Mexico

September 19: The number of migrants in Del Rio swells to an estimated 14,600. Deportation flights to Haiti begin, with 327 people flown out of the US

September 20: Border Patrol officials continue bussing Haitians away from Del Rio, with a further 233 deported. Photos of migrants being confronted by agents on horseback cracking their reigns emerge

September 21: Another 523 people are deported via plane, with the number of Haitians remaining in Del Rio estimated at 8,600. Texas Governor Greg Abbott arranges for hundreds of state vehicles to form a makeshift border wall in Del Rio

September 22: Unnamed sources tell AP thousands of Haitians apprehended in Del Rio have been released into the US rather than deported. Seven flights have been scheduled to continue the deportation effort.

If I can find work, Ill stay here with my family, said the construction worker.

Statistics published by COMAR show that 18,883 Haitians applied for asylum in Mexico in the first eight months of this year, the second-highest nationality after Hondurans.

Border Patrol agents were so concerned about the escalating situation at the border that they requested additional resources three months ago but their concerns were not acted on by superiors.

Jon Anfinsen, National Border Patrol Council local president told CNN that the union on June 1 suggested improvements to the system.

Anfinsen said that they wantedagents to be sent to the border with tablets to start the intake process when a large group crosses the river, instead of having the group wait there while space is cleared in the station.

This way, we can at least get part of the process finished before they even get to the station instead of wasting that time, said the email.

The union followed up on June 3, and also suggested placing a trailer in the area for additional staff, to deal with a predicted surge.

On June 17, the union received a one-sentence response: This is being explored, several other platforms are being considered which are more efficient.

Meanwhile anArmy veteran who organizes annual clean-ups of American cities has told of his shock at the squalid conditions along the border.

John Rourke, founder of the Great American Clean-Up, said that he and his team were taken aback at the scenes.

Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security Secretary, was in the city on Monday but Rourke told Fox News Tucker Carlson that more needed to be done.

Let me tell you what I saw, Rourke said.

I saw people washing babies in the Rio Grande.

I saw ladies breastfeeding babies, sleeping in dirt, 107 degrees outside, red ants everywhere, real coyotes the ones that have four legs walking around.

Its like Naked And Afraid: the southern border edition, out there.

People are literally knocking down trees and setting up lean-tos and teepees and sleeping under those.

He said he and his colleagues picked up thousands of pounds of garbage along the southern border.

Ted Cruz says migrant crisis grew from 900 to 15,000 in weeks after Biden canceled flights to Haiti Source link Ted Cruz says migrant crisis grew from 900 to 15,000 in weeks after Biden canceled flights to Haiti

Excerpt from:
Ted Cruz says migrant crisis grew from 900 to 15,000 in weeks after Biden canceled flights to Haiti - Texasnewstoday.com

Tucker Carlson peddled a white supremacist conspiracy theory while attacking Biden over the Haitian migrant crisis – Yahoo News

Fox News host Tucker Carlson Janos Kummer/Getty Images

Tucker Carlson pushed the white supremacist "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory on his show Wednesday.

Carlson baselessly accused Biden of "eugenics" as he railed against the president on immigration.

He falsely suggested the president once said that "non-white DNA" is the source of America's strength.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson unabashedly pushed the white supremacist "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory on his show Wednesday night as he baselessly accused President Joe Biden of "eugenics" and allowing migrants to flood into the US in order to "change the racial mix of the country."

Carlson's Wednesday night attacks on Biden came as the president faces rampant criticism over an escalating crisis at the border involving Haitian migrants. "American citizens owe no debt to Haiti," Carlson said, while lambasting the Biden administration over the fact the White House called images of Border Patrol whipping at Haitian migrants "horrific."

Contrary to Carlson's claims, however, the Biden administration is currently moving to deport thousands of Haitians - and facing major pushback from Democrats and activists over the treatment of the migrants as a result.

"You've got to ask yourself, as you watch the historic tragedy that is Joe Biden's immigration policy, what's the point of this? Nothing about it is an accident, obviously. It is intentional. Biden did it on purpose. But why? Why would a president do this to his own country? No sane, first-world nation opens its borders to the world," Carlson said.

He went on to say, "There's only one plausible answer ... To reduce the political power of people whose ancestors lived here, and dramatically increase the proportion of Americans newly arrived from the third world ... In political terms, this policy is sometimes called the great replacement - the replacement of legacy Americans, with more obedient people from faraway countries."

Story continues

The Fox News host explicitly invoked the white supremacist "replacement" conspiracy theory, rhetoric often linked to hate groups that he has used before.

White nationalist and far-right groups have consistently pushed the racist conspiracy theory that people of color are vying to replace white people.

Talk of "white genocide" is common among white supremacist groups. During the deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, the white nationalists in attendance chanted: "Jews will not replace us."

Carlson, who is the most-watched host on cable news, has repeatedly echoed these bigoted talking points on his show. Critics say he's mainstreaming white supremacy.

On Tuesday, he warned of a migrant "invasion" at the US-Mexico border.

Carlson in April contended that Democratic lawmakers are "importing a brand new electorate" of "Third World" immigrants to "dilute" American voters. Fox Corporation chief executive Lachlan Murdoch defended Carlson at the time amid calls from the Anti-Defamation League for him to be fired. "A full review of the guest interview indicates that Mr. Carlson decried and rejected replacement theory," Murdoch said. "As Mr. Carlson himself stated during the guest interview: 'White replacement theory? No, no, this is a voting rights question.'"

But Carlson in his segment on Wednesday made explicit references to "non-white DNA," while effectively accusing Biden of pushing a policy of eugenics against whites.

Carlson was taking remarks made by Biden as vice president during a 2015 summit on terrorism out of context.

At the time, Biden lauded the "unrelenting stream of immigration" to the US that began in the 1700s, and said it's not a "bad thing" that it's projected white people in the US will eventually be a minority. Biden was touting diversity, and the immigrant tradition in the US, as a source of American strength.

Carlson misconstrued Biden's words, and falsely said, "[Biden] said that non-White DNA is the, quote, source of our strength. Imagine saying that this is the language of eugenics. It's horrifying." Biden never said this.

In response to a request for comment from Insider, a Fox News spokesperson pointed to previous comments from Carlson. He's said "it's wrong to mistreat people based on their skin color," and has denied being a white supremacist. The spokesperson did not address Carlson's comments on multiple occasions promoting the racist conspiracy theory that white Americans are being replaced by other races.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Read more from the original source:
Tucker Carlson peddled a white supremacist conspiracy theory while attacking Biden over the Haitian migrant crisis - Yahoo News