MT Quaker weighs in on border policy

Peter Husby published this letter to the Editor in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle today.
Read it at this link:
https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/letter-to-the-editor-let-s-fix-our-broken-border-policy/article_9f8c64b0-6ecd-11ef-a5da-df16a2e800f9.htmlwww.bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/letter-to-the-editor-let-s-fix-our-broken-border-policy/article_9f8c64b0-6ecd-11ef-a5da-df16a2e800f9.html

Let’s Fix Our Broken Border Policy
        U. S. immigration policy isn’t working well for anyone. Businesses are crying out for workers, the border is not secure and migrants are suffering and dying in the desert instead of going to work. Think about it: while our government spends billions on border security, legislators have been trying to come up with a guest worker program that meets our demand for labor. This makes no economic sense.
What can we do about it?
 First, make it relatively easy to obtain a guest worker permit. Let people stay as long as they are working and check in with immigration authorities every few months.
Second, help the “sending” countries develop their own sustainable economies and to eliminate cartel and gang violence.
Third, eliminate private, for-profit prisons. They cost taxpayer lots of money and keep migrants from working.
Fourth, give asylum-seekers a safe place to apply for asylum at the ports of entry. Asylum- seekers are extorted, mistreated and lied to by Mexican cartels as they are transported to the border.
Fifth, hire more immigration judges to process asylum requests. Decriminalizing needed workers would fund more judges.
Sixth, STOP the legal and illegal flow of guns into Mexico.
                Almost all of these weapons end up in the hands of organized crime. Last, put an end to border mythology. Anti-immigrant reactionaries would have us believe that the southern Arizona border, for example, is too dangerous to visit because of a predominance of drug smugglers, criminals, etc. Not true. As part of the humanitarian aid group Tucson Samaritans, I have personally made over 200 trips to the border area in an attempt to prevent death and suffering. I have never felt the least bit threatened by anyone. Most migrants are escaping violence and extreme poverty.