Walking, or flying, that is the question

Migrants caravan from Honduras on its way to the USA through Mexico

If the USA, by an Act of Congress (or better said, the inaction of the US Congress) is intent on letting all the poor people from Central America apply for asylum and enter into the USA to take up permanent residence, there is an alternate way to do it that strangely enough has not been explored and not even mentioned in the news media. The alternate way is lots safer and quicker for all the applicants. It could be turned into reality right now if the many US charitable organizations that are now housing and feeding the newly arrived pool their resources together to make it come true. All they have to do is start buying plane tickets in massive numbers, and give them away for free at select locations in Central America.

The alternate route is quite simple, and in some manner it is reminiscent of the Berlin Airlift of 1948. At present, the undocumented migrants from Central America, mostly poor, take a long journey walking across Mexico until they get to the USA-Mexico border, and once there they cross into the USA and ask for political asylum surrendering themselves to the US Border Patrol or CBP agents posted along the border at the international ports of entry (i.e. the bridges connecting US cities with Mexican cities). This has worked well so far for them, but this manner of exodus is near the point of exhaustion since the massive caravans arriving from Central America are no longer being welcomed by Mexicans as they used to be about eight months ago, and there is a growing resentment and feeling among the Mexican population that these uninvited guests are creating a lot of problems that Mexico did not have before their first arrivals back in 2018. Mexico is becoming fed up with the indignity of being used as a jumping board to the USA by invaders who do not even qualify as tourists. A problem of concern for Mexico is the overwhelming of Mexico's shelters for the poor, due to the fact that those who make up the massive monster caravans are used to making their journeys without carrying a single cent in their pockets, fully expecting to live out of handouts and public charity in Mexico and in the USA. Shelters for the poor in Mexico such as Casa del Migrante (and even private charitable organizations in the USA) have already complained about being overwhelmed by the never ending influx or undocumented migrants from Central America. Furthermore, a new wave of criminality and delinquency brought into Mexico by some of these unwanted visitors (some of them fleeing from justice in their countries of origin) has already raised concerns about their presence in Mexican soil. As if this was not enough, the collapsing of the international bridges connecting the USA and Mexico is already creating huge economic losses estimated in the tens of millions of dollars. In some respects, the welcome mat is beginning to be pulled out by Mexico. President Trump has already warned Mexico that if the poor huddled masses yearning to breathe free are not stopped by Mexico at its southern border with Guatemala, he will "close the damn US-Mexico border" completely, an action that would immediately become a major economic catastrophe not only for Mexican cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez but also for US cities such as San Diego and El Paso located along the border.

It may get to the point were Mexico, forced by circumstances beyond its control, will have no other option but to stop all those caravans at its border with Guatemala, even resorting to force if need be or to pepper spray. If such a thing does happen, where will all those people go? Would it be the end of their dream to share a piece of the American pie? Not really.

There is another way for Central Americans besides walking to an international bridge located between the USA and Mexico and requesting political asylum at the US side of the border. Quite simply, it entails just taking a plane going directly from Honduras (or Guatemala, or El Salvador) to an international airport in the USA, and immediately upon arriving present a request for political asylum right there.

All US international airports have permanent US immigration and customs agents on the spot 24/7. Any CBP agent at a US international port of entry, including airports, is empowered to receive and process a claimant of political asylum. Thus if a plane loaded with 300 passengers from Honduras arrives at the Miami International Airport, and all those travelers are asylum seekers, they can all be processed right there on the spot, without the need of ever travelling by foot all the way across Mexico and without the need of entering illegally into Mexico. The trip of all the asylum seekers would be a one-way ticket, but an asylum request with any merit assumes that the asylum seeker does not have any plans of returning to the country from which he/she is fleeing. From Honduras (or Guatemala) to the USA the air fare is about 300 to 400 dollars. If charitable US organizations now feeding and lodging these political asylum seekers inside the USA pull their resources together, they can purchase the plane tickets for all these people from Central America. They can even organize charter flights to fly them all the way from Honduras or Guatemala to Houston or to Miami or even to a city like El Paso (which has an international airport).

In some cases it might not appear to be that easy, because at some international airports overseas there are US customs and immigration agents posted right there who can deny and prevent undocumented travellers from boarding a plane headed to the USA, and in such cases people such as those who make up the caravans would be unable to get into the USA to request asylum. However, what they can do (and so far it is not being done) is to show up at the boarding station (e.g. American Airlines) and ask the US immigration agent posted right there for political asylum. Since CBP, ICE and all other US federal immigration agents are not authorized by law to deny anyone their right to request asylum either at the international bridges or at international airports, they would have no other option but to let them board the plane to the USA. Once upon arrival, the new wave of undocumented immigrants would turn themselves over to the US federal government for the processing of their asylum requests. This can only change if the US Congress unexpectedly changes the rules for requesting legal asylum (fat chance!)

It all amounts to this basic question: Why walk all the way across Mexico (and Guatemala, for that matter) in a long and perilous journey to ask for political asylum in the USA, if a plane flying straight to the USA can be boarded right there in Central America in order to travel to the US to ask for political asylum?

Taking a flight to the USA instead of walking through Mexico in order to immigrate into the USA is not such a new concept as it may sound. Up until the start of the XX century, the bulk of European immigration did not have the option of walking since it was not possible to do that with the Atlantic ocean in-between. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of European immigrants (resembling the large numbers of immigrants now coming from Central America):

made their way to the USA not by flying (air travel between America and Europe was not feasible until Charles Lindbergh demostrated it could be done with the first solo, non-stop transatlantic flight made between two major cities) but rather by taking a transatlantic ship to the USA, and landing at Ellis Island. In the sailing ships of the middle 19th century, the crossing to America or Canada took up to 12 weeks, and by the end of the century the journey to Ellis Island was just 7 to 10 days. So, going from Central America to the USA by means of a jet plane is not that different from sailing from Europe to Ellis Island, the only difference being that the immigrants then were white Europeans with blond hair or Caucassian profiles and the immigrants now would be brown-skinned American natives, otherwise both equally poor (just as the parents of the Drumpfy US president.) Thus, walking, sailing on a boat, or taking a flight on the AeroCaribe de Honduras DC-9:

straight from Honduras to the USA is all completely equivalent as a means of arrival into the USA for immigration purposes, with asylum procedures applying equally regardless of the mode of travel.

If walking is replaced by flying, the processing of asylum applicants would remain exactly the same as it is right now, the undocumented migrants would turn themselves over to CBP agents as they are doing right now, except that instead of surrendering themselves at USA-Mexico international bridges they would be surrendering themselves at US international airports. All else would remain exactly the same. No need to change the law.

If enough money can be collected by US charitable organizations through donations to pay the fares of the tens of thousands or poor Central Americans waiting in line to move over to the USA, those charitable organizations could fly ALL the poor people from Honduras and Guatemala and El Salvador into the USA, bringing all of them under the umbrella claim or political asylum, helping all of them secure a US permanent residence visa (the so-called "green card"). This, by the way, is precisely what is being done right now. They are arriving at US ports of entry in large caravans, and after putting up a well rehearsed sketch they manage to convince some judges to grant them the coveted asylum status and therefore obtain the legal permit to take up permanent residence in the USA bypassing the lengthy and costly consular immigration procedures in their home countries. No need to hurry, though, in helping them fly all their way to the USA instead of walking through Mexico before the US Congress closes this loophole, since the very expensive US Congress (a bullshit brain-dead Congress distinguished by its near zero productivity) apparently has already made up its mind that it will not come up with any kind of immigration reform, and so things will remain the same as they are right now perhaps until the coming of the Apocalypse.