The Resources to Police and Incarcerate but Not to Aid / by Karie Luidens

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Isn’t it wild that, as we’ve seen in the last few days, the U.S. government is relying so utterly on charities and volunteers to help asylum seekers transition to their sponsors?

Federal agencies are apparently concerned with these people when they’re walking in the desert and when they’re incarcerated in detention centers. From the moment they’re released, though, our government wants nothing more to do with them (until their scheduled appearance in immigration court).

This, in a country that supposedly prides itself on being a nation of immigrants with a Statue of Liberty to welcome refugees. The U.S. is the wealthiest, most powerful country in the world. Don’t we have the resources to care for those who make the desperate, dangerous journey to seek asylum here? That is, couldn’t immigration authorities ensure people are safe and on course when they’re released by providing them with bus tickets, travel information, a fresh change of clothes, a last hot meal, snacks and a stipend to pay for shelter on the journey?

Of course we do. We have the resources to wage war, to police, to incarcerate.

Of course the U.S. government has the resources to care for these people, rather than pass them off as the responsibility of overburdened charities.

All it lacks in the political will.