Thats it? Just two? How is this world news?
Fearmongering
That is the news. That it is only two. The right wing party in Finland is hell bent on building a wall to stop the hoardes of illegal immigrants that are supposedly being bussed in by Putin.
Now, there are all kinds of good reasons to watch this border closely after Finland joined NATO and Putin has promised to make trouble there, but illegal immigrants?? Those are a fictional threat.
However, the same threat is being pushed by right wing parties in every European country. The threat originates from somewhere. Apparently, someone somewhere wants to push fake news about illegal immigration. It is fuel for fascism. It divides the population and creates patriotism that will hinder international collaboration.
Who could be interested in that? That person is the real enemy.
European countries shouldn’t spend resources on stopping illegal immigrants. European politicians shouldn’t spend time arguing over illegal immigration. We should be using our resources and time to figure out why so many people are needlessly afraid of immigrants.
I wouldn’t say it’s a fictional threat. The people are being trafficked to the Finland-Russia border by some actor in Russia. And Russia also simultaneously happens to change their policy of not allowing people without full documentation to pass the Russia-Finland border on their side and instead lets them through. It’s fishy.
Oh for sure, the russian shenanigans are real.
It’s the xenophobia and reactions based on that which are totally useless. Illegal immigrants eventually show up somewhere inside a country whether or not there’s a wall and whether or not the politicians attempt to make a hard line. Police will encounter them eventually and they can take them to the immigration offices for clarification of their status.
Patroling is necessary and domestic police needs to be on top of their job to handle it. It’s a job for policemen and border patrols. It’s not a job for politicians and it’s not necessary for ordinary citizens to be afraid of immigrants. However, certain politicians enjoy getting more votes from scared people, even if their hard line solutions don’t work and their fear mongering only makes the situation worse.
I’m absolutely certain that the Finnish border control can handle this better without an expensive physical wall and without having a population living in artificial fear.
I found it kind of wild the extent of undocumented immigration we have in the US (hundreds of thousands a year), and an article I read the other day said Finland was experiencing ‘dozens’ of immigrants coming over. Or this about 2 people.
Is the US border closed completely? This is about the border between Finland and Russia that is now closed until mid-January. It is not about immigration to Finland or anywhere else in the EU. The sudden appearance of would-be immigrants with no visas is a part of Russia’s hybrid operations against Finland, because the two have had a practice where Russia will not allow people with no visas to pass their border control to approach Finland, and Russia suddenly started letting them through.
It’s theoretically closed to illegal immigrants, sure. Of course in practice that’s very difficult to do given the terrain, length and remote nature of much of the southern border.
I have read about how this is believed to be an intentional destabilization attempt by Russia, which of course they’d do. Also given the governments fascist nature, I’m sure they don’t really want immigrants.
The Finland-Russia border is completely closed though, so you can’t pass through with any kind of documentation. It is about 1300 km (800 miles) long , which is of course a lot less than the USA south border, but then again Finland is very small compared to the USA. I feel bad for the poor people who are stuck in Russia even though someone falsely told them they could get to Finland. They are being used as pawns in someone else’s game, and the northern winter is not gentle on newcomers.
I get that the US has 60 times the population of Finland. That’s actually a very large border for the size of the country - the US Southern border is about 1900 miles. The Border Control agency stopped 2.75 million illegal crossings a year, and who knows how many people made it.
The cold and migrants thing is reminiscent of the bullshit that the states of Texas and Florida have been pulling lately… illegally busing migrants by surprise to other states. Just last month Texas sent a busload to Denver and that’s been going on a while. DeSantis might have stopped by now, not sure. Denver is pretty cold in the winter as well, and there are thousands of people from Venezuela living there in tents now. It’s a callous game with people’s lives totally in line with the personalities of Tex. Gov Abbott and DeSantis of Florida.
In Europe and Finland there are a lot of undocumented immigrants. It’s in the news as well. This is news because it’s from Russia through a border which should be closed fully.
illegal immigration in the us includes people overstaying visas. Finland has plenty of overstayed visas too, but the border to Russia is meant to be closed due to the war escalation in Ukraine.
Sure, but I’m talking about people who come up from Central America with no visa at all.
Do you have a source that says hundreds of thousands of people a year cross the US-Mexico border outside of legal crossing points?
Sure.
“Migrant border crossings in fiscal year 2022 topped 2.76 million, breaking previous record”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/migrant-border-crossings-fiscal-year-2022-topped-276-million-breaking-rcna53517That’s just the people they stopped. It could also be some people being stopped multiple times.
“Fact Check: Were There 600,000 Southern U.S. Border ‘Got-Aways’ in 2022?” https://www.newsweek.com/southern-us-border-migrants-gotaways-2022-1770201
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) tweeted on December 27: “[…] Border Patrol counts more than 600,000 got-aways this year alone.”
Official data for “got-aways” in the 2022 fiscal year is yet to be released by the Department for Homeland Security (DHS), but Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed to Newsweek the accuracy of the figure in Kennedy’s tweet. “Got aways are defined as subjects at the Southwest Border who, after making an unlawful entry, are not turned back or apprehended, and are no longer being actively pursued by USBP agents,” states the DHS Border Security Metrics Report: 2021.
So that’s people they tried to stop and gave up.
Note this doesn’t mean that the total number increases each year, as some people go back and don’t return, and others go back and forth.
Fair enough, I didn’t know that there were so many people crossing the US border.
I will point out that the equivalent EU figure post-migrant-crisis is about 400k. I believe that EU border officers are generally not allowed to turn migrants away if they have a valid claim to asylum. https://etias.com/articles/eu-migrant-influx-record-2023
The same is true under US law and international law in general - if someone shows up at border point and requests asylum, saying they’re in danger, have been forcibly displaced or are fleeing persecution, the country must admit them. It’s not assured, though, as someone can be turned down for a US criminal record or other background check flags. You also have to apply and go through a court process to be officially granted residency. And then, having shown up and being under official control at a border, starting under Obama many refugees have been placed into detention camps or even made to wait in Mexico while their cases are processed, which can take quite some time - the US has a court backlog of about 850,000 cases. So, many people consider it easier to just dodge the authorities and come in unofficially.
Yeah, as I understand it, there are a lot of problems with requesting asylum in the US. people are not allowed to request asylum at border crossings, crossing the border illegally often prevents asylum seekers from seeking asylum, border patrol often dont respect asylum requests, asylum seekers are detained inhumanely, and asylum courts are deliberately underfunded.
I wish there was more discussion about these issues in the us, instead of blanket statements about migrants crossing the border.
Imo, its part of the whole “America bad” thing going on, that America deserves it.Finland is a “good” country, so its notable when they get punished.
