In the Era of Split-Screen Views of the Border, Each Side Has Its Story, and the Political Implications Are Enormous
By Jerry Kammer on June 4, 2019
In April, as the numbers of asylum-seeking Central Americans reaching the Texas border steadily grew, the New York Times reported that the influx had become so overwhelming that the U.S. government "is now unable to provide either the necessary humanitarian relief for desperate migrants or even basic controls on the number and nature of who is entering the United States."
Among the 1,343 readers' comments posted on the Times website, one cited the story's political implications so powerfully that it drew a remarkable 967 "recommends" from other readers. Its message was blunt: "My fellow Democrats need to confront an ugly fact of life: They need to get tougher on immigration or Trump will ride this crisis to another four years. We cannot take in 1 million desperately poor Central Americans a year. It is unsustainable and, if left unchecked, will produce a reactionary backlash dwarfing that of 2016." Another reader drew 256 "recommends" for his dismayed observation about the failure of congressional Democrats to push for action to constrain the influx: "They are fiddling while the country is burning."
https://cis.org/Kammer/Era-SplitScreen-Views-Border-Each-Side-Has-Its-Story-and-Political-Implications-Are-Enormous
