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To what extent is immigration to the US a humanitarian crisis whose dire need for regulation unfolds the conundrum the US is faced with?

Part ONE | It is necessary to reckon that the US has been experiencing tidal waves of migrants which pose dilemmas, and stalemates.

• This year saw a huge influx of migrants at the border: about 2,5 million would-be Americans scrambled to the US-Mexico frontier (3). It is all the more hard to solve as the number of undocumented migrants (1) has risen since the 70s (nowadays, there are nearly 11 million undocumented aliens apprehended at the border).

• Actually, warfare, famine, crime-plagued neighbourhoods, the lack of opportunities (1) have caused many aliens to elope from their homelands with the view to working their way up, and finding a better life in mainstream America.

• We cannot but pinpoint that migrants, either undocumented or not, are drawn by the American Dream which encompasses ideals such as democracy, freedom of enterprise… They wish they could assimilate in the US and leave the misery behind.

• However, the Financial Times (3) sheds light on the pandemonium it has brought on for immigration has wreaked an “upheaval with far-reaching ramifications”. It has turned into a real humanitarian crisis. The dilemmas are clearly laid out in Bliston’s poem (5): should Americans “build a wall” or unfold the blind and see them as true human beings? It isn’t as easy as pie to solve.

• As said by the NYC mayor (3), a “breaking point” has been reached since shelters in the Rust Belt are crammed and have been lacking food, hygiene, medical care, so has it been in the detention facilities spearheaded by Donald Trump (1).

Part TWO | It is a hot-debated issue since the government’s management unravels controversy.

• Whilst Democrats wish Trump’s immigration policies were decried (1), others still believe immigrants are pure felons, mere loafers, as emphasised in Bilston’s poem (5). Consequently, controversy has escalated between anti-immigration supporters and the pro-immigration endorsement: both articles (1 - 3) reflect on the widening gap between the Elephant and the Donkey. Actually, it is now the real elephant in the room. All the more so because Trump once cracked down on immigration as “poisoning the blood of the US”, yet still seen a promised Land. Emma Lazarus wrote: “give me your tired, your poor / your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free” (4)

• Aiming at staunching the flow of migrants, the detention system (1) intensified by the Trump’s administration incarcerates, if not ensnares, thousands of immigrants. Nonetheless, they are “prison-like facilities”, and the conditions of incarceration outrage citizens, hence taking to the streets, like in Lafayette Square (2). It reminds us of Ellis Island, as alluded to in the Financial Times, as an intricate maze to the US. The detention system is akin to this 

• It is all the more thorny as the immigration is at the core of political debates: for instance, NY Mayor Adams has prompted Biden to “declare a state of emergency and set a national resettlement strategy” (3). Many would die on their way to make it to the US, hence volunteers recalling the death toll by planting 700 crosses (3).

• Thus, immigration prospects have been weaponized as a political arsenal to appeal to voters (needless to say the trial to 2024 elections is heating up), vouching for better management amid a “political clash over migration policy” (3).

Part THREE | The puzzling muddle immigration stands for.

• Because the border is mile-stretching, the issue utterly topical, and Democrats are faced with a mostly-Republican Congress, immigration is yet a real riddle for politics in the US.

• What would become of migrants when winter comes? What could come of out such a mayhem (meɪhɛm)? Questions are still up in the air, awaiting for answers to be laid on the table.

• The US has a lot on its plate, “the world can be looked at another way” (5), as written by Bilston.

• Americans have to face the past, and recognize their own origins: Obama once said “Most of us used to be them”, hence Lady Liberty (4), because she “resigned”, can’t have found out any solution to this crisis.

• The compromises laid out, here the detention system and hearings, are rather unbalanced and weaken the myth of the “melting-pot” (also called “tossed salad”) America once epitomised, as well as the Latin credo “E pluribus unum”. As said in The Financial Times, it is “getting frosty” (3)

In a nutshell, the difficulties migrants go through, as seen in the Golden Door motion picture, reiterate nowadays in the US. The catch-all phrase American Dream is reminiscent of hope, excitement, yet ghoulish outcomes as many fall short of their expectations once setting foot on American soil. The US, as a global power, mirrors cultural influence, but is not devoid of shortcomings, as testified by the conundrum the border has turned into. As far as I am concerned, I shall quote a Franciscan: “Every human being has the right to migrate”. Unity and strength are required to overcome this crisis….