This sounds harsh and given modern mores is in fact harsh. But there’s also a great deal of truth to it:
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli blamed the father in the now-infamous photograph of a drowned man and his daughter at the southern border for both of their deaths.[/perfectpullquote]Who, of his own volition, went into the water with his daughter? At least some of whatever responsibility there is to hand around must go to the person who made that decision, no?
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Cuccinelli: No, in fact just the opposite. The reason we have tragedies like that on the border is because those folks, that father didn’t want to wait to go through the asylum process in the legal fashion, so decided to cross the river. …Until we fix the attractions in our asylum system, people like that father and that child are going to continue to come through a dangerous trip.[/perfectpullquote]The pair may well have had to wait an inordinate amount of time – US Federal bureaucracy is not known for being fast moving – to be assessed for asylum but the act of actually going into the river is what killed them.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Cuccinelli, an immigration hard-liner who was nominated by President Donald Trump this month to head the federal agency that oversees immigration and asylum, pushed back against that criticism, and the idea that the photo could be a turning point in the immigration debate, by instead placing blame on the father for not waiting his turn.[/perfectpullquote]I dunno, maybe it’s different for us English, inculcated as we are into the idea of queuing and turn taking. But it’s not the Feds who put them into the river is it?
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peter singer - not the meanest of people - recommends that asylum seekers are sent to the refugee camp closest to and associated with their country. Countries should be generous in granting asylum but only take applications away from their borders - this avoids the abuse involved in people smuggling and the unfairness of preferring those who cheat. [It also makes it pointless to lie about coming from a worse country than you actually do]
David Cameron did occasionally try to do the right thing - his proposal that we accept some Syrian refugees direct from refugee camps in Jordan (and, implicitly no others) was designed to be humane but the side-efects would have sensibly reduced people-trafficking, children in the Aegean, the "jungle" outside Calais ... Of course lefties denounced a policy that was more humanitarian than Labour's as a smokescreen for the brutality of Labour's policy on refugees.
Peter Singer seems to have noted Cameron's idea or come independently to a parallel conclusion. He's right.
The fault entirely lies with the parents who chose to do something stupid and the consequences were tragic. No one was nipping at their heels at the time they attempted this crossing and no one else is to be blamed. We should end the practice of allowing people to apply for asylum at the border. Let them apply at a US embassy or consulate. All these Central Americans could stop in Mexico City and apply there. They could also apply in Mexico while they're at it. That would reduce the pressure on the border, where the Border Patrol is ill equipped to care for camp loads of people and especially children, and it would reduce the temptation to cross illegally.
The man concerned was attempting to commit a crime; illegal entry into the US. He and his daughter died in the attempt. I simply cannot see that the US has any responsibility whatsoever.