Aaron, Waddy, and guest Laura Gutman (a Duke University pediatrician) agree that there’s a humanitarian crisis at the border – and a medical crisis as well. Can they agree on how to address it?
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I just listened again after hearing this broadcast two days ago. So much misinformation was given. At least they weren’t like the infamous Fox News “expert” who falsely claimed the people on the immigrant caravan carried smallpox. I wished Dr. Gutman would have mentioned some statistics. According to WHO, people from northern Central America are unlikely to have tuberculosis. Children have very low rates of infection. Nations with high TB rates include Brazil, Russia and some African and Asian nations. WHO incidence rates were .072% El Salvador, .038% Honduras and .025% Guatemala. Many of my friends from Central America were vaccinated against TB so they would test positive in a tine test but don’t have it. Also she should have mentioned that according to the CDC people with latent TB are not infectious. Although some aspects of Mexico are better than northern Central America it continues to have major problems of violence. A priest friend working in Ciudad Juarez mentions ongoing murders of women and much robbery. The US State Department issued an increased travel advisory in April. US government employees are no longer permitted to travel between cities in Mexico after dark. Waddy is right that we need to invest more in Central America to reduce the push of immigrants to the US. He mentioned Peace Corps. (I was a PC volunteer in both El Salvador and Honduras, 78-82) PC just pulled of out of El Salvador because of the violence and left Honduras in 2012. (The last straw was a volunteer was shot while travelling by bus to their site.) Trump is reducing aid to Central America. A Honduran group I know just lost their AID funding for a youth program. The Obama program to process children’s refugee applications in Honduras was eliminated by Trump. Another issue no one mentioned is the impact of climate change on agriculture and many farmers no longer able to make a living. Laura Gutman is wrong saying 100% of people there want to move to the US. Most in spite of everything will stay. The claim that 25% of family units are fake is not true. The stats I found for one study calculated 0.5% as the figure. (And of course, unaccompanied minors, fleeing gang violence are trying to reach relatives and family friends in the US and Canada.) I have friends who have volunteered at shelters where immigrants are staying. Those shelters do know who is staying with them and do help families. The claim that nothing has been done by either party for 50 years is not true. There have been programs to let in Cubans, South East Asians and Central Americans after war, earthquakes and hurricanes. There is a system of work permits and student visas. DACA was and is a good program. I was shocked that the Republicans on the show were not willing to help others. We are a nation of over 300 million people. Many of the people seeking asylum will not meet the criteria and will be sent home to grave danger. (A few have already died in their native lands.) As a first world nation we owe it to ourselves and others to treat asylum seekers fairly.