One of the things exit polls showed about the election was that many people felt Trump had become too tough on immigration. Specifically, they didn't like ICE arresting people with no criminal records in big blue cities. The de facto deal on immigration is that if you can get into the country, whether it's by cheating or lying, you can stay forever so long as you don't cause any trouble.
The problem with that approach is that it's a flashing sign to everyone in Central and South America that the country is now open for more migrants. Democrats desperately want to believe that we can welcome everyone in and be nice to everyone here in the U.S. and back in Honduras or Nicaragua, nothing will change. But the real world doesn't work that way. The reality is that the moment you send a signal that we're easing up on illegal or quasi-legal immigration, word gets around and you have thousands of people hitting the road for the southern border.
In fact, you don't even need any change of policy at all, just a glimmer of hope and the migrants start marching. That's exactly what has happened after the blue wave election. Trump is still president and nothing has changed, but migrants sense that maybe the U.S. is going to start easing up now that Democrats run congress. So here comes the next migrant caravan.
...the Democratic “Blue Wave” appears to have encouraged some migrants to undertake a risky journey to the US. The hope for an easier passage to the United States was especially palpable this week among a pair of migrant caravans bound from Honduras and El Salvador.
Some told CNN that with the imminent Democratic majority in Congress, they are betting it will be easier to reach the United States. All asked to remain anonymous due to the dangers associated with embarking on the journey to the border.
“That’s the hope,” said Beatriz M., who is traveling with her husband and her 9- and 11-year-old children from El Salvador, “that we can make it to where we’re going.” Beatriz and dozens of other Salvadorans set out on Friday from the Western Bus Terminal in San Salvador for Tecún Umán, on the Guatemala-Mexico border.
“This is not the usual flow of passengers,” a bus company employee told CNN, asking not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Upon arriving in Tecún Umán, the group intends to join up with other migrants, among them the caravan that left Honduras on Election Day and is already making its way through Guatemala.
That's a CNN report so this isn't some right-wing outlet. As mentioned, a caravan began leaving Honduras on election day. The election is a big part of their strategy for getting into the U.S.
According to the Latin Times, “The timing was intentional. Throughout the group, participants expressed a shared belief that a Democratic takeover of Congress could weaken President Donald Trump’s grip on immigration enforcement, either by blocking new restrictive measures or simply by introducing enough political uncertainty to create a window at the border.”
“Trump is on his way out in these elections. That’s why we’re taking the risk,” said one migrant, according to Tico Times.
“While they’re going through the election process, we’ll be on our way. We have faith that we’ll arrive while they’re busy with that,” said another.
Reuters posted this video which includes interviews with some of the migrants. Alvaro Vanega told Reuters they were all economic migrants looking for work and added that they will pay taxes and contribute to the country.
He seems like a decent enough guy and maybe he's telling the truth but once you let one person game the system, you wind up doing the same for ten thousand more and then, over a few months it becomes a million. We did this whole thing during the Biden administration. It was chaos and people didn't like it, which is why they reelected Trump.
But it seems no one learned anything from that experience, certainly not the migrants who've been waiting for a green light to move to America. And I doubt the Democrats have learned much either. They'll be looking to tone down Trump's approach to the border and ICE and present a kinder, gentler approach to immigration, just like Joe Biden did.
Even Trump seems to have changed his tune suddenly. Maybe he thinks that's necessary in the new political climate. But there's no doubt how an amnesty deal would play out in Central America. It would be a huge green light, spawning a hundred more migrant caravans just like the one that's already on the way.
Bottom line, you can't discourage mass migration with talk. You have to make it clear that no one is getting in or everyone will try. But I guess we're going to go through this whole cycle of failure again. That's how it looks at the moment.