Between San Diego and LA there is a choke point as the costal mountains come close to the ocean near San Onofre. It is here on the 405 freeway there is a border patrol checkpoint (or at least there used to be). 20 years ago my wife and I spent a week-end camping at the San Onofre campgrounds on the bluffs overlooking the ocean. The camp grounds butt up against the railroad lines that lie between the freeway and the bluffs. So it's hills, freeway, rail lines, camp grounds, bluffs, beach, ocean.
We stayed thru Sunday night and observed hundreds of Latino aliens walk north on the beach, walk thru the campgrounds on old coast highway, ride the trains, get chased by the border patrol in vehicles up the 405 (one unloaded several in front of the freeway fence as we watched the border patrol pull up behind, Billy Club them off the fence, pull them down, and throw them in the back of the van,) and cross on the coastal hills from evening thru the late night en mass.
Estimates are from 11 to 20 million illegal aliens currently in the U.S., with from between 300,000 ('08 and '09) to 800,000 ('04 and '05) crossing yearly. We can project since times are better here in the U.S. now than they were during "The Recession" but, not as good as during '04/'05 the number of aliens currently crossing lie somewhere in between. So what's another hundred thousand per year?
I wouldn't call it a flood as we are already experiencing a flood for decades that
cannot be stopped so long as times are better here than in Guatemala, Mexico, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Honduras. Maybe a large fire hose compared to a flood? And I'm not surprised that there is an increase in the number of teens crossing for as shatty as things are for teens in this country it has to be many times worse in the countries listed above.
Edited to add regarding the teens migrating to America: "The children don't only travel because of poverty or reunification. In a recent study we have detected that another important theme is migration because of insecurity," said Julia Gonzalez, coordinator of the nonprofit National Bureau for Migration in Guatemala.
A study released in March by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said about half of 400 kids interviewed reported they had experienced or been threatened with serious harm. About 300 of those interviewed were from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — countries that accounted for about 90 percent of the children cared for by the Office of Refugee Resettlement last year. This from:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =318396194El Norte is the dream. El Norte is the better life. El Norte is money to send back home or to use to start a business here.
One only has to look at the significant decrease in numbers during "The Recession" to know the movement of human beings across borders is mostly economically driven. Things are going to have to get a hell of a lot worse here to stop this flood. I know this sounds crazy but, fighting it doesn't and has not worked as we have decades of history and millions caught and reportedly deported and they still come. Perhaps it would be better to embrace it and work with it?
In all honesty, I don't really expect to see much change at all except for the increase in sensationalism and political mud slinging it is going to be used for. Smoke and mirrors and distractions to keep you from seeing what is really going on. A scape goat to give the people something else to focus on and vent rage on instead of the current unsustainable system and those controlling it.
That's how I see it.
Comments and other views encouraged.
