After wading through 7 pages of this thread, please forgive me if I missed someone already commenting on the following -
Thousands of citizens from Honduras and Guatemala have been organized to make a trek from their nation to the U.S. southern border with the hope of entering as well as staying. We have all sort of theories being thrown around, fueled by mass media and talking head spin. They are coming none the less.
The issue I find interesting is the concept of this group and predecessors coming under the guise of "asylum seekers" or "refugees". There's a problem with both claims.
By international law, a person may seek asylum from another nation for various reasons. Often it is because their lives are in direct danger from their homeland's government. The issue is that the asylum seeker must seek asylum from the first nation they enter. The asylum seeker does not get to pick and choose where to seek asylum. The asylum seekers does not get to flee home, cross two sovereign nations, and then seek asylum in a third nation.
The next issue is to consider this group or previous groups as "refugees". There are strict terms defining what causes a person to be considered a refugee. Those reasons would not include poverty or violent criminal gangs. Also, accepting someone into your nation under a refugee status is only for a limited time with the intent of the refugee to return to their homeland.
I believe the real driving force behind this mass of persons intending on illegally immigrating into the U.S. is rather simple - money. Whenever poverty borders prosperity this is what you get. Unlike over a 100 years ago when people crossed the oceans on ships to enter Ellis and Angel Island, there is not intent on these people to assimilate and become Americans. Unlike that same time, there is no limit to the number of Americans willing to provide substandard wage employment in menial jobs (under the table) to them.
The worst prisons are the ones without bars. Poverty is probably the worst prison. It makes people desperate and there is no shortage of people willing to take advantage of that.
I have been saying for years that the U.S. has deployed its armed forces in the wrong places. It's quite obvious that Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico's governments have no intention of fixing their problems. A few Marine Battalions should be able to round up all the drug cartels and MS-13 members.
