What's Going on Down there at the Border?

 Perhaps we don't know what's going on down there at the border. Oh, we read how the migrants waiting in Mexico for their appointments in the U.S. are being extorted, how the cartels or whoever are approaching them and taking their papers and saying, Hey, we won't give these back unless you give us $86. Cough it up.

And, we hear how the Biden administration seems to be saying, Enough of that. If you are being extorted, then we are going to take away the app you are using to get permission to come. Sorry. We know we've told you you have to apply for admission on the app. That's the route we've given you. Well, guess what. If you are being extorted, then no way are we going to let you use that app.

Say what?

And, if that doesn't make sense, learn a little more and it really, really won't make sense. Humanitarian workers serving the immigrants have warned the CPB (U.S. Custom and Border Protection) officials that conditions on the Mexican side of the border are not safe for the migrants.

And the U.S.'s response is this? If it is unsafe for you there, then you just won't be allowed to come. Sorry, but if things are unsafe, it means we can't let you cross the border at all. Justice is justice. You've got to understand that we've got a problem here and we've got to go about solving it, and this is how we are going to go about doing it.

But, maybe we just don't know everything about what is going on down there. Maybe what the U.S. appears to be saying, they are actually not saying, at all.

Maybe, just maybe.

In reality, while the immigrants are required to use the app in order to be admitted, anyone with an severe medical condition or who is under immediate threat of being kidnapped or killed can be admitted. Queried by The Associated Press as to what is going on, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) emailed back saying a more efficient and orderly system has been put in place "while cutting out the unscrupulous smugglers who profit from vulnerable migrants."

The AP story doesn't say if that exchange with the DHS came before or after the reports of extortions. But, it does say, "Neither the U.S. nor Mexican governments addressed questions from the AP regarding reports of migrants who use the app being extorted." So, it appears the exchange did come after the reports of extortion.

But, what is the email saying? When it days things have been "addressed" is it referring to how the Biden administration created the app six months ago? Or, is it saying that as a result of the extortions, yet newer guidelines have been implemented that cut out "the unscrupulous smugglers who profit from vulnerable migrants"?

Like allowing them across the border without using the app.

Time and tide will tell.