Steven Koltai – Substack – March 15, 2024

Note: Steven Koltai is a friend of many decades. Check out his bio at https://digitalequitycenter.org/about-us/board/steven-koltai/ – The following is Steven’s eye-opening report that I urge you to read and share.

“I have just returned from a visit to the US/Mexico border.  We were at two sites: El Paso/Juarez and San Diego/Tijuana. The trip was a Board Mission for HIAS, the oldest American refugee assistance organization. The Hebrew Immigrants Assistance Society (its full, former name), was begun in the 1880s and coincidentally, helped me (age 2) and my parents come to America from Hungary in 1956. While originally created to help Jews settle in the US, today, virtually none of HIAS’s clients are Jews and the largest number settle in countries other than the US, though the exception is the US/Mexico program where most migrants do settle in the US. HIAS specifically neither encourages nor facilitates immigration; rather, it works with asylum seekers and refugees who are caught in extremis. Our signature programs fall in 4 main areas: Gender-based violence counseling, mental health and psycho social support, legal information, and job training. HIAS normally does not provide food, shelter, clothing, medical care, transportation or security (except for its own staff and programs). 

What I saw at the border was NOT consistent with what I normally see in the mainstream news about the crisis at the US/Mexico border. The dissonance was striking. Here are the key disparities with the usual narrative:

1.         There were NOT hundreds of thousands of people clamoring to cross the border (on either side). Shelters on both sides were generally at 50% capacity or less. While the NGOs running them certainly agreed that there are peaks and valleys in the flow of people, the current “below capacity” story was very common.

2.        The vast majority of migrants on the US side of the border (99% according to the biggest NGO we talked to working with migrants), have family or friends in the US and have specific onward destinations to go to from the border crossing areas. In fact, the biggest task of these welcome centers is getting people to their planes and buses for [their] onward journey. Certainly, it is possible to fill buses with people being shipped to “liberal” cities like NY, Chicago and Denver. But even these people are often going to join specific family members or friends.

3.        The vast majority of asylum seekers are fleeing physical violence and threats with a substantial number having actually experienced same. They are NOT economic migrants and all things being equal, most people would have preferred to say in their home communities if at all possible.

4.        100% of migrants who make it to the US border do so with the “help” of criminal cartels who basically shake them (and their families) down for every penny they have, leaving them fully destitute by the time they arrive. This “human trafficking” is now at least an equal revenue stream for the cartels as is drug trafficking. Given the size of the business, there is little any regulatory change will do to stem the flow, especially since it is primarily Mexico-based where the national and especially key state governments (Guerrero, Michoacan, Jalisco were often mentioned) are not only powerless to control this but seem to often be acting in concert with these cartels.

5.        There is an enormous difference in the situation in Texas vs California, clearly owing to the different politics in those states. In California, the State Government works with and supports NGOs trying to provide some order and structure to the flow of humanity. An example is that one of the largest temporary shelter programs in San Diego actually receives state funds to pay rent for a hotel with 200 rooms. In Texas, the situation is reversed. The state is an active adversary of NGOs, actually harassing them and impeding their work. One of the largest temporary shelter organizations in El Paso is currently being sued by the Texas Attorney General in a “nuisance suit” seeking every document in their possession to basically show they are a “magnet” for migrants, thus impeding their daily work. 

6.        Perhaps most importantly, there seems to be much evidence that the entire “crisis” is largely of the US Government’s making and is largely, if not wholly, political. The infamous “CBP1App” is the ONLY way for asylum seekers to access the formal, legal US asylum entry system. There are over 1 million asylum seekers. The CBP1 App assigns 1,400 appointments per day spread across the 6 ports of entry between the US and Mexico. This means that it not only takes 6+ months to get an appointment, but that once one has an appointment, the result is almost always denial. In the “wait time” migrants spend hours – often between 2 am and 5 am when they are told the chances of getting through are greatest – trying to get appointments. They suffer sleep deprivation, frustration, depression and anger. When layered on top of the “normal” challenges of often sleeping in awful conditions with little food, heat, sanitation and services, the system itself creates untold misery. Similarly, we learned (and saw) that the border wall in Tijuana, for example (build entirely with US money), is set at 38 feet so as to maximize injuries when falling down on the other side. Since there are actually two layers of fence with a no-man’s land in between, the result is that there are often people with horrific leg, ankle, and foot fractures (including broken and protruding bones) that are literally in limbo and unable to get care or move to either side. Even some of the most infamous walls in history (Berlin, West Bank, Korea) do not leave people in this state of limbo. The US Government policy of inflicting maximum pain seems to continue throughout the system where it is virtually impossible to “legally” immigrate to the US. There are woefully few immigration judges, lawyers, social workers and even customs and border patrol (CBP) officers to manage this process in an orderly fashion. This mania to prevent people from entering is particularly nonsensical given the crying need for labor in the US – everything from hotel and restaurant workers to health care workers, bus drivers and agricultural workers – most of these people seeking entry are willing to take ANY job, no matter how trivial. It is almost comical that even in El Paso and San Diego, it is virtually impossible to find restaurant workers or custodial staff when there are thousands of people ready, willing and able to take ANY job.

HIAS does the work it does because Jews are well acquainted with what it means to be persecuted refugees fleeing for one’s life. The Torah mentions aiding the stranger 36 times; in fact, it is one of the most important tenets of Judaism. Passover, coming in a few weeks, is primarily the story of exile, and its central theme is comforting the stranger; the person who is different from you but no less worthy of compassion and help. As the motto of HIAS says, originally we helped others because they were Jews; today we help others because we are Jews. At this fraught moment where xenophobia and hate mongering against “the other” seem to be the flavor of the month, it is useful to remember that the three Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam all place caring for the stranger at the top of their hierarchy of fulfilling God’s commandments.”

For more information about HIAS, including to make a donation to support our work, please see: https://hias.org

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