I agree that we don't need armed troops at the border.
But I also think that our military and the national guard in particular are only government agencies that have the money, the personnel and the facilities to handle a large influx of people claiming to be refugees.
If these people were coming in because of a war in Central America in the numbers in which these people, including many as others have pointed out, vulnerable children, we would declare and emergency and the national guard would be given some responsibility for taking care of them.
The military is the only department in our government that has the flexible funding to deal with this. The only department outside of the intelligence agencies maybe. I think that budget for intelligence could be used too.
Getting the funding and setting up all the things that are needed are the challenges in this situation. It's really hard to get money for American citizens in need, much less for people crossing the border by the thousands.
This time they claim that they fear gang violence. In the future people will come here to escape the effects of climate change. We have to be better organized to deal with emergencies, with all kinds of emergencies.
Call it an invasion, and the money will be found in our military. Call it refugees and it comes under a different fund, a fund that does not have the money to deal with the problems this creates -- like schools, food, shelter, etc. for the people coming in.
Further, we have to decide whether we can absorb these numbers of people at this time. This is just the beginning of flight to the US. Can we just let everyone come here because they need someplace to go? Can we let everyone come in and stay who feels threatened where they live? How about Iraqis? How about Palestinians? How about the Chinese? How about refugees from Afghanistan? We have to have a rational policy on this. Neither knee-jerk rejecting people out of fear and prejudice nor knee-jerk taking on a lot more responsibility than we can handle at a time when our infrastructure and economy are not doing well for most Americans.
Do you think we have the national will to raise taxes to pay for the expenses of caring for refugees or invaders depending on what the courts decide about their status?
Cause this is going to cost a lot of money.
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