so, what do we do with all of these people?

broadly speaking, i don't think that most of them have valid claims. this is a fundamentally different issue than what the united states is seeing on it's own border. what the americans need is a good neighbour policy, to get to the root causes of all of the migration out of the area. in the short term, i'd like to see them convert the migrants into a peasant army and send them back to fight the gangs.

well, i mean, that's what the british did when people started escaping the continent - they armed them and sent them back. i understand that the ameicans are at the root of the problem, but if the migrants don't fight the gangs in central america, who will? and, why do we seem to think it's ok that nobody is fighting them?

the issues we're dealing with on our border are nothing like this, they're a mixture of desperation and hysteria. and, you need to kind of look at the issue, one by one.

regarding the haitian immigrants, i find it disturbing that trump is ordering them out - these are people that fled a catastrophe and have built new lives in a different country. but, the argument that they should be allowed to stay in america doesn't generalize to being allowed to stay in canada. they were brought to america as guests, and deporting them is inhumane and unjust, true; however, fleeing to canada doesn't fundamentally change the injustice of deporting them. the argument is that they have jobs and families in america. do they have jobs and families in canada? most of them don't. and, while i acknowledge that they have a right to trial, i do think that the end result in almost all cases should be to send them back to haiti. i may not like the administration's decision, but it is not canada's responsibility to step in and offer a consolation prize; the immediate danger to them has passed, so they should go home and help their country rebuild. in the mean time, they should be housed on the border in as humane conditions as are possible.

i don't know how accurate the anecdotes about migrants from nigeria or pakistan are, but these are more traditional claims, and need to be treated as such. i do understand that some of these people are fleeing actual violence, but the vast majority of them are economic migrants and should be sent back, at their own cost. under normal circumstances, i may be less inclined to insist on housing at the border, but the situation right now is extreme, and extreme measures need to be taken to address it.

and, insofar as whatever latin american refugees that appear on our border are concerned, i do believe that they should be sent back from here as well - with whatever help we can give them to fight the scourge that has driven them out. i want to be in solidarity with these migrants. it's just not sustainable to absorb them; it makes more sense to help them fight back. or, to put it another way: viva la revolucion.

i'm a leftist, not a liberal. i can only explain this plank by plank, i guess. maybe, i might even convince you...