By Rachel Pak
Over the last several weeks, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has reported a rise in the number of migrant children seeking refuge in the United States.
With the increase, the federal government’s capacity to process and shelter migrant children has been stretched, leading to children being housed in overcrowded and inhumane CBP facilities for extended periods of time.
Federal officials and some media have called what’s happening at the border a “crisis” or a “surge”— harmful rhetoric that has long been used to dehumanize immigrants and people approaching the southern border.
This language of crisis is a distraction — and it undermines common sense policy solutions that can secure justice and safety for everyone in our country, including immigrant survivors fleeing gender-based violence.
Not only can this language be misleading and a misrepresentation of actual migration flows, but it provokes fear and needlessly divides Americans. It turns immigration into an “us versus them” issue, falsely painting migrants as a threat.
Policy solutions then shift to emphasize criminalization and detention, rather than responding with compassion and welcoming with dignity to those seeking safety. As a result, we’ve seen egregious policies in the last few years, like detaining and separating families and sending people seeking asylum to wait indefinitely in Mexico for their day in court.
When we buy into the sham narrative of crisis, we fail to recognize migrants as human beings and we lose sight of the real issues: how our government is treating people who are escaping unimaginable violence — and how our policies are returning individuals to torture and even death.
Right now, children are being jailed in deplorable conditions where they are susceptible to heightened and enduring trauma. Meanwhile our border remains largely shuttered to adult survivors fleeing rape and horrific gender-based persecution because the new administration has yet to repeal an illegal policy implemented under the last one.
People escaping violence have a right to seek safety. If they can’t, that’s the real crisis.
Moving towards a better justice system isn’t possible if we continue to scapegoat immigrants instead of reckoning with our broken system. People approaching our borders deserve better. At the very least, our language should recognize their humanity.
We should look at the context of border crossings and understand the many complex reasons people leave their homes — including to find refuge from atrocious acts of rape, domestic violence, and other forms of gender-based violence.
We should center the individual in our language — each person carries their own intricate stories and histories. Then, as a country, we must remember our moral and international obligation to uphold the legal right to seek asylum and extend refuge to those who qualify.
We have an opportunity to improve our policies and better secure access to safety for immigrant survivors. But to get there, our approach must shift to one of compassion, reflecting the humanity of people approaching the border.
Everyone deserves to live a life free from violence— and our language and policies should reflect that.
Rachel Pak is the Media Relations Associate at the Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit organization that serves immigrant survivors fleeing gender-based violence.
Henny says
1 : to rise and fall actively : TOSS
a ship surging in heavy seas
2 : to rise and move in waves or billows : SWELL
the sea was surging
3 : to slip around a windlass, capstan, or bitts —used especially of a rope
4 : to rise suddenly to an excessive or abnormal value
the stock market surged to a record high
5 : to move with a surge or in surges
felt the blood surging into his face
— Harry Hervey
she surged past the other runners
Shelly says
Call it what it is…. a crisis. If it isn’t a crisis when the children are packed into cages that are 800% over capacity, being raped, not tested for COVID, no masks and no social distancing and toddlers being dropped 14 feet over a border wall, what do you call it? I call it a crisis on the tax payers dime. Thanks Joe!
Jimbo99 says
And by the way, they chose to march across Mexico from wherever it was they overpopulated. I think they’re more resilient than most give them credit for, just by the fact they took it upon themselves to walk from the Honduras & Gautemala wearing “Biden, Let us in” t-shirts ?
GR says
I would like Rachel Pak to explain why during the Trump administration it was called a border crisis and now during the Biden administration to stop calling it a border crisis? Even though there are more people crossing the border. Even though a Border Patrol chief said the flood of immigrants trying to cross into the US is at crisis levels. You know things are bad when even liberal news outlets like CNN can’t come up with a defense for Democrats. Host Brianna Keilar called out the Biden administration on Wednesday for refusing to call the ongoing situation at the border a crisis despite metrics like apprehension numbers reaching all-time highs.
Tom says
You are right! It is not a border crisis! It is a illegal alien invasion. Over 100,00 illegal aliens per month………..if this continues it will destroy our constitutional republic.
Cary says
IT IS A BORDER CRISIS. When you send a signal around the world for all to come you create a crisis.
Richard says
Just another left wing liberal WOKE op-ed. I guess according to her we should call it a Border Party.
Graydon Parsons says
Amazing how we have changed the language and moved away from the obvious. These are not migrants these are illegal immigrants breaking federal laws when they enter our country.
I am an immigrant, a legal immigrant who took the time and trouble to immigrate through the legal channels.
It amazes me that in a country that holds the rule of law so dear and penalizes its own citizens harshly to the letter of the law have chosen to exempt a massive group of people, and shift the language to suite the liberal game plan to shift the voting base in the swing states.
Call it what it is, this is a political push to change the landscape of the American voting block.
I am sure that you will ignore the current poles where over 56% of Americans disagree with the current border policies that the current, and not the past administration have hastily implemented, America is not a bottomless pit of money at some point this will come home to roost.
Combat Vet says
What rock did this person crawl out from under? Totally detached from reality
Hammock Resident says
It is a crisis when 100,000 illegal aliens are coming across the border illegally, not crossing at border checkpoints and observing established procedures. It is a crisis when teachers are giving in person instruction to illegal aliens but not children of tax paying citizens. It is a crisis when states like NY & CA are approving payments of up to $15,000 to illegal aliens. All these incentives, encourage illegal aliens to jump the line. Was kind of a message is it to the folks that want to follow the law, and seek to come into this country legally. It is a disgrace. The real estimate of the number of illegal aliens in this country is above 25 million not the 11 million figure always quoted. That 25 million estimate is before the latest surge. You can not empty out entire countries into the United States. There are not enough resources. It is interesting how other countries, for example Canada limit and control legal immigration into their country. When I travelled to Europe when I was 18, I needed to show I had resources to live there 30+ days. We do not even stop the illegal immigration much less control the legal immigration, when we let folks flood across the border illegally, and then do not send them back immediately. Why are we the bad folks that dont care for kids of parents that abandon their children. When the United States allowed 11 million illegal aliens into the country Congress had a deal to increase border security at the same time. The 11 million plus folks have been coming in illegally but attempts to enforce the current law, much less make it better, are ignored. Very sad this situation.
Brian says
Toddlers being dropped over the wall to fend for themselves, 20,000 minor children now in US custody costing taxpayers $60 million PER WEEK, but this bleeding heart liberal sees no crisis. Okey Dokey, Rachel, okey dokey.
Pogo says
@The blind leading the blind
Unsurprisingly, the ossified, myopic POV of the local reactionaries prevails in these comments. Instead of understanding the world as it truly is, i.e., literally – the only home of everyone – they would have it that everyone are their own world. They are incorrect.
OUR entire world is critically ill. The situation at the border is a symptom of that illness.
“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22
CloseTheBorder says
I can’t believe I even wasted my time reading such drivel. It’s a crisis for crying out loud. Foreigners are breaking our laws in record numbers. We are letting them pass right through. We aren’t the same country as we were in the 19th/20th centuries. Long ago, if you came here great, but you were on your own. You didn’t come here and then stick out your hand and say feed me. We can’t simply take everyone in when we provide a ridiculous amount of govt support to the poor. How the left can’t see this is maddening. You can’t expand systems to provide to the poor, then continue to allow oodles of poor people in. Immigrants (both legal and illegal) from South America consume 86% more welfare and social services than their native counterparts. Close it up tightly, or dump the welfare. Can’t have both. Especially not with debt at $28T and counting.
Mark says
LOL! Some people just can’t handle the truth.
Gary says
Typical POG. Can’t even elaborate how the individual above is “detached from reality.”
capt says
Agree, the media seems to take it way off base. Its a crisis plain and simple. So I guess Cancer is not really a crisis but covid is. Here we have illegals coming into this country and the democrats don’t seem to get it, but maybe they are only looking at future votes. IN other countries, well it appears the US is so very different.. https://www.loc.gov/law/help/illegal-entry/chart.php
deb says
Is only a crisis if the liberals want it to be a crisis. To the rest of the sane world, its a Crisis regardless of what party is in office.
Jeff says
Exactly. It is nothing but a self made Biden Border Crisis. Biden blew the illegal immigration whistle all through his campaign. Come on Man!
Immigration Help says
The piece highlights how many of these children are fleeing unimaginable violence and poverty in their home countries, hoping to find safety and a better life in the U.S. Yet, instead of compassion, they’re often met with hostility and political rhetoric that dehumanizes them. The article draws parallels to historical moments, such as the U.S. turning away Jewish refugees during World War II, emphasizing the moral implications of our current actions.
What struck me most was the call to view these children not as threats but as individuals deserving of empathy and support. It made me reflect on the values we claim to uphold as a nation. Are we truly living up to the ideals inscribed on the Statue of Liberty?
Ray W, says
Speaking of “distraction”, I remain amazed at the gullibly stupid furor roused by certain FlaglerLive commenters over the misdemeanor offense of crossing the border. Let’s repeat that. It is a misdemeanor under federal law to cross the border without registering with authorities, not a felony!
If in 1980 a hypothetical two-year-old child crosses into America with her undocumented parents, the statute of limitations on the offense of crossing the border would have expired by the time the child turned five, but for the fact that crossing the border is the only misdemeanor on the federal books that has no statute of limitations.
If the now hypothetical 47-year-old woman were to be picked up while outside a grocery store, she would face a possible misdemeanor charge for an offense that she “committed” as a two-year-old in 1980, for which offense she can still be deported.
Our hypothetical undocumented immigrant might have a husband in a marriage that has lasted for decades; she might have a church family; she might have her own children and grandchildren; she might, perhaps, even own a small business that has provided employment for her workers for decades, yet as a misdemeanant some on this site would brand her a heinous criminal worthy of imprisonment or worse, just because she left people alone for 45 years, employed other people, maintained a family, supported her community and her church, and contributed all the while into the U.S. Treasury, Social Security, and Medicare/Medicaid using a legally valid TINS number issued to her by the IRS decades ago, without her ever being able to draw money out of those programs.
Look at each undocumented immigrant as an individual. Many of the undocumented might deserve deportation, but many more might be far more valuable in so many different ways to America by remaining here as opposed to living elsewhere.
Ray W, says
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data interpreted by the St. Louis Fed, the number of native-born workers participating in the overall labor force in October 2019 was 131,721k. A little over five years later, the number of native-born workers participating in the overall labor force in March 2025 was 131,186k. Other data reflects that the native-born labor participation rate has not dropped during that time frame.
BLS data is derived from workers who receive paychecks during a particular auditing period each month.
There can be little argument against the fact that the number of native-born people receiving paychecks has stagnated over the past five plus years.
As I have repeatedly commented, the birthrate for American-born women dropped below replacement rate of 2.1 babies per woman at some point in 2006 and the rate has continued to drop ever since. Native-born women simply have fewer babies now than did their predecessors. Until that changes, we are not going to see an increase in the number of native-born workers anytime soon. This explains in part why Florida’s legislature passed a bill last year that permits children as young as 14-year-olds to work longer hours, including overnight shifts, with fewer breaks.
GDP growth depends on two factors. More workers producing goods and technological advances that permit greater productivity per worker. Productivity growth via technological advances only goes so far by itself. Employment growth, in general, complements technological productivity growth. To maintain a healthy growing economy, we need more workers in their millions each year, and those millions of additional workers aren’t going to come from the ranks of the native-born.
We should be welcoming immigrants in their millions into the national labor force each year, not vilifying them.
Sherry says
Not sure how this article from 2021 is accepting comments, but here goes:
If only the Maga Republicans in Congress did not STOP immigration reform from happening, there would be a better path to “LEGAL” immigration. I believe the Maga Republicans desire the “Illegal” brand on migrants so they can focus their Fox radicalized “HATE” and villainize someone other than themselves. Pathetic!