US President Joe Biden is about to do something his predecessor Donald Trump condemned. Despite the criticism, Biden has pledged to build a new wall along the Texas-Mexico border. According to foreign commentator Bernard Hummelberg, this shows how big a migration problem America is facing. ‘A huge problem across America.’
Some southern governors are busing asylum seekers to major cities in the north, such as New York. “That city pays its taxes, and it costs gold.” The country needs to find a solution to the problem, but “nobody has the answer,” Hummelburg insists. “Not even Biden.” He thinks it is ‘the ultimate irony’ that he has now chosen to build a wall.
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Construction costs will be covered by money appropriated from the Trump era. “Biden has now said he can’t do anything else with that money, so he’s building part of that wall.” But Biden was quick to say that a wall is not a solution to the migration problem. “People climb over it, dig a tunnel under it, and go to the ocean on the California side,” Hummelberg notes. ‘It won’t help, everyone knows that. Even in Trump’s camp.’
‘It won’t help, everyone knows that’
Nevertheless, the issue of migration has never been as extensive as it is now. And more visible than ever is the ploy to bus asylum seekers to big cities. New York has had a law since 1981 that requires municipalities to provide shelter to anyone seeking shelter. There has been a massive appeal for this, and about 120,000 asylum seekers have arrived in a very short period of time. ‘I don’t know what to do in New York, about 300 hotels have been seized to accommodate refugees. It costs New York taxpayers $386 per refugee per day. According to Hummelburg, Biden should have intervened much earlier. “But he’s at a loss.”
Granada
Migration is also being discussed during the summit of the European political community in Granada, Spain. “Like America, European leaders are at a loss,” says Hummelberg. For example, the migration agreement with Tunisia is in jeopardy, while Germany indicates that it can no longer cope with the influx, while in ‘Berlin’ not so long ago ‘Vir Purchas Das’ was the guiding principle.
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According to Hummelburg, although the deal with Tunisia was said to be a mistake, “so much has been tried and basically everything has failed.” But there is an international agreement that every country must adhere to: if someone from a foreign country stops at the border and says the two words ‘political asylum’, they must admit this person. Most countries do this too, but the penetration is now so high that it is difficult to find a solution. “Actually, our government has fallen on it. And not without reason,” says Hummelberg.