2024 will be a year for immigrants

Better late than never. Here’s a New Year’s prediction: 2024 will be the year of the migrant, 1,000%. Yes, that label fits. Migrants and refugees will be center stage for the next 12 months. That includes the 11th month, November, and the 2024 presidential election, which will likely be a rematch that no one wants: Biden versus Trump, the war to see who is the bigger bore.

To the 1000s of people who cross into the United States every day, I have to ask: Are you really sure you want to do this? It’s not a good time for us. Still, if you’re the type of person to leave home, or flee a bad situation, or run towards a better tomorrow, this year could be for you. If you’re brave enough to pack up all your belongings and venture into the great unknown, chasing the promise of a better future, this is your big moment. If you’re not discouraged by the scourge of nativism, even in countries with immigrant traditions that have trouble living up to them, this is going to be your year. If you’d like to gamble, if you’re okay with changing countries midstream, if you’re willing and able to vote with your feet, and if you’re at peace with leaving behind loved ones in order to give your children better lives, the stars are aligned for you this year.

There’ll be a global phenomenon that’s not limited to the United States. And to some degree, it’s already underway. All around the world, people are on the move. From Northern Gaza to South America, they’re changing zip codes in a quest to change their fortunes. Or maybe they’re just leaving for their own survival after facing famine, war, poverty, corruption, violence, even natural disasters.

At the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana, Border Patrol agents report encountering people from dozens of countries. It’s not just Mexico that sends up. People are coming from Russia, Ukraine, Honduras, Haiti, Colombia, Venezuela and elsewhere. These people have one thing in common: Desperation. They’re out of options. And so they’re coming to the land of second chances, the United States, where you don’t have to be perfect, and the only thing you need to own is a dream.

These folks should look familiar to you. These are the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Maybe you’ve heard of them. Maybe they look like your parents or remind you of your grandparents. They’re coming here to work, not for a handout. And they’re hoping that America lives up to the promise that’s printed right there in the brochure. Sadly, they’re likely to find out otherwise. Too many Americans want to pull up the ladder after them. The political parties don’t understand immigrants, and so neither one of them is much help in crafting a solution.

The Republicans are clueless. They’re content to blame the current migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border on President Joe Biden, who they must think has the power to single-handedly cause millions of people to migrate to the United States. Street gangs in Honduras, a political assassination in Haiti, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, earthquakes, floods, according to Republicans who basically want to call it quits and build a huge wall and deep moat, it’s all Biden’s fault.

Meanwhile, the Democrats are gutless. After ignoring the crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border for years because of a fear of antagonizing Latinos and others on the pro-immigration left, and then promising to end all those terrible and repressive Trump border enforcement policies, now the Biden administration is acting like they were the first to discover the problem. Their solution? Be like Trump, and co-op the same policies they once criticized, and of course, hope no one notices the contradiction. Migrants will be all out of people’s mind this year. Let’s hope that leads to fewer heated arguments and more thoughtful solutions.