Migrant deaths show urgent need for reform

Red-meat politicians, and those pundits who give voice to fear, want voters and viewers to think immigrants are part of a nameless, faceless horde. That they are invaders intent on changing our way of life, even though the only lives most of them want to change are their own; even though many come to the United States drawn to their perception of the lives we have here.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported more than 2.7 million encounters last year. Those are encounters, not individual migrants who may attempt to enter the country multiple times. But each migrant carries a history, a backstory.

Those stories ended, cruelly and abruptly, for at least eight of them last week. They died when two boats carrying migrants crashed off the coast of San Diego.

“This is one of the worst maritime smuggling tragedies that I can think of in California, certainly here in the city of San Diego,” San Diego Lifeguard Chief James Gartland said.

A woman on one of the boats called 911, officials reported. She said 15 people went down when one of the boats capsized, although officials could not confirm the number.

“The access to the area was very difficult due to the tide and coastal cliff there,” Gartland said. “So lifeguards worked to technically extricate all of the victims there.”

Officials said the migrants were victims of a human-trafficking ring, a point that speaks to the complications of our broken immigration system. Many migrants are victims of human trafficking and smugglers, who take advantage of our failure to enact comprehensive reforms that provide legal pathways for residency.

“This is not necessarily people trying to find a better life.” U.S. Coast Guard Sector Commander Capt. James Spitler said. “This is part of a transnational criminal organization effort to smuggle people into the United States.”

Since 2017, the Coast Guard has reported an astonishing 771 percent increase in human trafficking along the Southern California coast, including 23 migrant deaths.

“These people are often labor trafficked and sex trafficked when they arrive,” Spitler said.

The tragedy in San Diego evokes memories of the 53 migrants who died last year in San Antonio, trapped in the tractor-trailer that smuggled them across the border. Temperatures had reached more than 100 degrees in the 18-wheeler.

Whether eight or 53, the deaths reflect the harsh reality of immigrants’ lives — not only in their homelands, but also in the country they regard as their salvation.

U.S. immigration policy is archaic and ineffective. While border security is a crucial piece of any comprehensive strategy, it cannot solely deter immigrants, who are driven here by violence, poverty and government instability in their home countries. Migrants make the decision to leave their native countries long before they reach the U.s.-mexico border.

It’s hard to imagine substantive change without comprehensive reform that would offer legal pathways for workers, bolster security, ensure economic support for certain countries of origin and enlist those countries to assist addressing illegal migration.

“Without understanding and addressing the key drivers of migration in the region … the U.S. goal of a safe, secure, humane immigration operation at the border will remain elusive,” the Center for American Progress stated.

President Joe Biden has requested $97.3 billion for the Department of Homeland Security in his 2023 budget, a $6.5 billion increase over last year, part of which would be used to address the root causes of migration.

“What we’re talking about here is much more than a U.S. assistance package,” a senior administration official said on a call with reporters. “We’re looking at actually building a broader coalition that includes not just the U.S. government and its supporters, but members of the private sector, the foundations, the international community.”

It is an ambitious plan and the type of federal response needed, but it must be accompanied with comprehensive legislation. The absence of such reforms has opened the door for narrow, political responses at the state level. For example, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s declaration that the state was under “invasion” last year or the spending of billions of dollars on Operation Lone Star, which has been plagued with problems.

Operation Lone Star is popular with Texas voters, but it also demonstrates the limits of a border response that only focuses on security and deterrence. Despite the immense presence of National Guard troops and Department of Public Safety officers, border encounters increased last year.

The only solution is a comprehensive one. Anything less is an invitation to the types of tragedies we have witnessed in San Diego and San Antonio.

San Diego tragedy reveals harsh reality of human trafficking