Mission RESCUE - Darién Gap Alternatives:
U.S. Asylum Request Vessel (USARV)
Concept Proposal – Updated 11/18/2024
As a timely and urgent measure intended to:
-
Make America Wholesome Again,
-
Significantly reduce the increasing numbers of unauthorized immigrants crossing our southern borders,
-
Prevent conflicts and costs among border community residents and impacted cities,
-
Circumvent the criminal exploitations by drug cartels,
-
Avoid unnecessary detention of qualified immigrants seeking asylum,
-
Comply with international rules regarding the rights of asylum seekers in our part of the world,
-
Provide and generate sustainable resources to support this mission,
-
Employ and house qualified participating asylum seekers in designated locations,
-
Help to resolve the imbalance of adequate affordable housing supply in the US,
We introduce a federal initiative proposal which provides:
-
The expansion of the geographical reach of the CBP One™ app in the southerly direction,
-
A material investment in seaworthy vessels to proactively recruit and vet qualified asylum seekers at foreign ports, hundreds of miles south of our borders,
-
Floating factories on ships to employ many of our migrant clients for the fabrication of much needed very affordable prefab housing structures,
-
Similar land based factories in every U.S. state are also proposed, in partnership with local community colleges, and adapting to the needs, ecology and resources of each state, while specializing in disaster recovery housing,
-
The training and employment provided will not only benefit the employed migrants, and possibly local homeless folks, but will also produce a revenue stream to help sustain this Mission RESCUE,
-
Close coordination with FEMA will also ensure the quantities and qualities of disaster replacement housing as a needed adaption to climate change.
U.S. Asylum Request Vessel (USARV)
We propose a federal initiative to provide one or more specialized U.S. Customs and Border Protection ships that may dock in
places like Puerto Vallarta, Veracruz, and other ports in southern Mexico and Central America with the facility and authorization to directly vet and
process a certain number of asylum request immigrants each day using the
CBP One™ app."
Those vetted successfully will be
safely brought to a designated U.S. Port of Entry (POE) for complete asylum processing either by ship, air, or other secure transport means.
CBP International Initiatives:
CBP strives to protect U.S. borders from beyond by implementing programs and initiatives
that promote anti-terrorism, global border security, non-proliferation, export controls, immigration and capacity building.
The CBP One™ app currently requires that To request and schedule an appointment at a Port of Entry, noncitizens must be located
in Central or Northern Mexico. This proposal would extend the area further south as assets are generated. The Puerto Vallarta
Cruise Port would fit into the ‘Central Mexico’ locus and may be a good place to start. The USARV program would also provide assistance
and asylum vetting in advance of the POE appointment for those who qualify. Prescreening will counsel unqualified migrants and assist with
foreign student visa applications, if appropriate, which will be described below. Hopefully, volunteer
legal immigration advocates
may also provide legal advice at this critical prescreening process to prepare for the POE appointment. With a history of
noted technical issues with the CBP One app,
this USARV vessel will also include technology for secure connections to create asylum application accounts and process appointments for those with
inadequate devices or no device at all.
New Asylum Requests Restrictions
In June, 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden
announced an executive order
that will temporarily restrict asylum eligibility at the U.S.-Mexico border whenever the number of migrants crossing unlawfully or
without authorization reaches a daily average of 2,500. Biden's executive order says those who cross into the country illegally won't
be eligible for asylum unless there are extraordinary reasons why they should be allowed to stay in the United States.
People who use lawful entry processes, like the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's CBP One mobile application or other designated
pathways, won't be affected by this guideline. Other exemptions include unaccompanied children, victims of human trafficking,
migrants facing medical emergencies, and those with valid visas or other lawful permission to enter the U.S.
Those who otherwise cross illegally when the restrictions are in place and do not establish a reasonable probability of persecution
or torture in their country will be "promptly removed, and they will be subject to at least a five-year bar to reentry and potential
criminal prosecution," a DHS official said.
This will also enhance the CBP One™ app and improve its capacity. As stated in the
CBP One™ Fact Sheet:
Available in English and Spanish, the CBP One™ application allows noncitizens located in Central and Northern Mexico to schedule an
appointment and submit certain biographical information prior to their scheduled arrival at a POE. Participating POEs are available
in Texas at Brownsville, Eagle Pass, Hidalgo, Laredo and El Paso (Paso del Norte); Nogales in Arizona; as well as Calexico West and
San Ysidro (Pedestrian West – El Chaparral) in California.
Provided our proposed rescue services are amply available, by using this process, immigrants will no longer need to traverse
the bloody trails to our border. It will also be safer and cleaner for our citizens living near the border.
However, Just
traveling to Puerto Vallarta, if originating from south of the Gulf of Panama, can evoke life threatening hazards along the
way, as discussed below.
Inclusive POEs
We would also propose the additional inclusion of
POEs far north of the border,
which exist in every state, mostly at airports, in order to make better use of resources in other states where migrants may have family and other connections
or employment opportunities. Our border POEs are already very congested with asylum seekers which also jams the functionality of the
CBP One™ app. By careful counseling with each migrant and family, the POE selection should not result in the occurrence of
uncoordinated transfers
from one location to another, as described by
Rescue.org.
Employment Authorization
According to
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services,
you are likely eligible to apply for an employment authorization document
(EAD) to legally work in the United States
if:
-
You were recently paroled into the United States through the parole processes for nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela,
or after receiving a CBP One App appointment and presenting at a Port of Entry; or
-
You have applied for asylum by filing Form I-589, Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal, and your asylum application
has been pending for at least 150 days.
Mission RESCUE - Darién Gap Alternatives
With good planning, the implementation of this program may work like the Knights in a chess game with vessels carefully placed
where strategically valuable. Let’s focus on assisting people who both genuinely need our help and also qualify as having
suffered persecution or having a well-founded fear of future persecution in their home country for the
specified reasons. Hot spots can also more readily be served with
a mobile fleet of USARVs,
in places that are accessible by
- land (highways),
-
sea (seaports) and
-
air. (airports)
The actual design and capacity of these vessels will require a lot of
thought and planning, including the need for medical care for migrants who may have been traumatized on their journey.
Temporary shelter? Schools? Nurseries? Safe playgrounds? Triage? Security? Languages? Heliport? Wi-fi Access Points? Let’s do it carefully. Let’s do it right.
Perhaps a good model may be the historical
USNS MERCY.
Our mission is to rescue our geographical neighbors from unbearable persecution or torture, if they can at least meet us half
way. For this mission, perhaps the name
USNS TRANSEND may work as the name for our first USARV vessel of hope?
Can we also hope that a hospitable port in Mexico as we propose by ship along the Pacific Coast, may also serve as a
safe alternative to the Darién Gap where
thousands of migrants risk their lives trying to trek north from Colombia every day, as reported in
The Darién Gap migration crisis in six graphs, and one map (The New Humanitarian).
Or you could hop on a jet in
Buenaventura, Colombia and land in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in half a day, a distance of 2,222 miles. Your $400+ boarding pass to freedom is clearly cheaper,
safer and much faster than any jungle trekking nightmares or boating adventures. For example, at
Ports.com we calculated the distance of 2366 nautical miles
at a speed of 10 knots taking 9.9 days at sea. One half day for air, 10 full days for sea at 10 knots. But you can at least catch up on your sleep!
With Ports.com you can also calculate different speeds, ports or additional ports for comparison. Fast walking speed may also be equivalent to 5 knots according to
Peninsulaboattraining.com.au.
Of course, a backpack and water canteens could slow you down a bit on your marathon? And then there's also sleeping and other necessities along the way? Comparing the calculated straight trajectories for
aircraft and seacraft is also incompatible with physical landscapes, highways, roads and winding mountain trails without accurate maps or measurements. You can look at the
land map above that focuses on highways in the region.
Other alternatives are discussed in
How the Treacherous Darien Gap Became a Migration Crossroads of the Americas.
Can we organize charitable funding sources to pay for air fare and circumvent the cartel bandits on the trails? Find the airport that’s
most convenient and affordable for you. Some airport alternatives follow.
A sample of regional international airports:
Floating Factory for Low Cost Affordable Housing
Can we also employ our energetic migrants during this process to make
very affordable prefab housing
units on a sister ship in the same port? Sustainability and endurance with built-in productivity will also help to train our talented
clients in skills that will likely improve their employability once they receive their EAD. This will also help to solve our affordable
housing crisis and homelessness in our homeland. All employed migrants will be paid at least the federal minimum wage.
Also, this will provide an organized program and more safety than experienced by masses of people trekking north or languishing in dangerous
areas, while waiting and hoping for help and attention by the Border Patrol.
No one will be forced to work if they are not not able, fit or interested. Of course, we anticipate the number and type of available jobs may not
be sufficient or suitable for all our migrant clients seeking asylum. This focus on vocational construction skills may also provide
qualification for foreign student visas for those migrants whose primary motivation is economic opportunity. In addition to quality
legal immigration counseling, good career counseling would also be essential at this juncture.
Homeland Based Factories
Once they are transferred to the USA POE, we also hope to create land-based prefab housing factories in every state where our
migrants will earn their keep while going through the sometimes lengthy legal hearing process for asylum, and / or directly applying for foreign student
visas, as described below.
Community College Partnership
In our proposal, for each state we plan a federal-state partnership providing a federally funded prefab housing
construction laboratory for vocational college students in one or more local college campuses. This in
exchange for the enrollment (if qualified) and teachings by credentialed masters of the building trades
to bolster the skills of our foreign student clients and provide certifications. Community colleges are
also a perfect place to learn English and other important languages, as well (although most colleges
require
proof of English proficiency
to enroll). At LATTC in Los Angeles, for example the
Construction, Maintenance & Utilities (CMU) Pathway delivers most current industry relevant training, including
sustainable construction techniques and other green technologies to equip students with the necessary
knowledge and skill sets to obtain, sustain, or advance in their chosen career paths.
We propose to invite a number of regular college students to work in our factory laboratory, side by side
with our asylum seeking clients, whether or not our migrant clients can enroll for classes at the
college. Our clients will be paid. The enrolled regular students will not be paid, nor would they
be charged for the lab. Teachers and supervisors need to be bilingual. We hope the colleges would
also find a way to teach English to our migrant clients, possibly with an arrangement with an adult
education school. Offering adult education in our port facilities will also be critical for preparing
for the proof of English proficiency test or
High School Equivalency (HSE) Tests
Foreign Student Visas
Full-time enrollment may also qualify our clients for foreign student visas such as the
F-1 or M-1
Student Visas. For both F-1 (professional) and M-1 (vocational) students, any off-campus training
employment must be related to their area of study and must be authorized prior to starting any work
by the Designated School Official (the person authorized to maintain the Student and Exchange
Visitor Information System (SEVIS)) and USCIS. We expect the college deans will also guide our
project’s training and construction standards to comply with
Green Building Standards. This should
include solar panels and adequate insulation for every completed unit, for example. Although
student visas are temporary, there may be ways to qualify for permanent residence, as well.
Seeking asylum, if qualified, is of course another option, or both. Enrollment with a student
visa may also require extra tuition fees. There are also other
Humanitarian exemptions.
For obtaining both asylum and Student Visas, according to asylum lawyer
Matthew Khoury:
Asylum seekers must have applied for sanctuary or be
granted asylee status
to be eligible for certain benefits, including the ability to study at colleges or universities. The only stipulation is that you
must have a pending asylum application i.e. you need to have filed
Form I-589 (Application for Asylum
and for Withholding of Removal). You can’t simply arrive in the U.S. as an undocumented asylum seeker
and enroll in a college or university.
Disaster Recovery Housing
In each state, the prefabricated structure designs may focus on specialized organic housing styles more
suitable for local housing needs, regional ecologies, available resources, and disaster housing replacement
demands, especially for those many states frequently besieged by
various disasters including
for example. Special regional adaptations for climate change should also be
evaluated on an annual basis.
A stockpile of prefab emergency homes may also be important for
disaster recovery replacements
especially as several insurance companies are now avoiding new
home insurance policies
in California and other states. Our construction factories may eventually become major
partners with FEMA.
We don’t want to make Mother Nature sneeze! Let’s face it, if we don’t more responsibly manage
our atmospheric pollutants, Mother Nature will more energetically clean house with a very
indiscriminate broom. Our recovery structures must be smarter, greener, safer, more efficient
and energy independent, and present a smaller eco-footprint. Not lavishly larger. More
insurable, as well, at lower rates.
Modular Housing Structures
Prefabricated homes at the very affordable level, as we propose, are not as large and customized
as modular homes, with assembled prefabricated parts. Prefabs are built to very high standards,
but they are portable and can also be separated from their foundations and moved like a mobile
home. Sometimes these prefabs are safely transferred from one disaster area to another as
transitional housing, as shown in the above
Hawaiian Disaster video.
We believe that the migrant populations we intend to serve, as well as millions of others struggling
for decent jobs, would be very happy to not only build these affordable structures, but to also live
and thrive in them.
Housing for homeless?
Pros and cons on different modular and prefab housing structures are widely debated.
Today the market for prefabs has spread as wide as
customizable prefabs on Amazon as well as
tiny guest houses and
green solar powered homes.
Building Occupations
Many people working in the building trades can afford fancy homes, as well. As summarized in
Construction and Extraction Occupations
by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (see list of occupations):
Overall employment in construction
and extraction occupations is projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations from 2023
to 2033. About 663,500 openings are projected each year, on average, in these occupations due to
employment growth and the need to replace workers who leave the occupations permanently.
The Issue:
One outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic was a significant rise in house prices. Prices rose by 13.5% from March 2020
to March 2021 and by an additional 20.6% from March 2021 to March 2022, as measured by the Case-Shiller U.S. National
House Price index. This has intensified the focus on the lack of affordable housing in the United States. While there
are numerous factors driving the rise in house prices, the increasing scarcity of housing units has risen to the top.
This problem has been building (or not, as the case maybe) for decades. But the pandemic took it to a whole new level.
Adequate Housing for Workers
Adequate housing units will also be provided for each land-based
factory for all employees and their families. In some isolated areas, a company town may need to be developed.
This would also
require new policy directives so that no asylum seekers participating in our Mission RESCUE will be subject to
correctional detention by ICE or DHS,
unless they are criminally prosecuted. Perhaps our first floating factory vessel may be named the
USNS HABITAT
and our mission may also coordinate with
Habitat for Humanity
for very affordable housing projects in various states and countries?
We know they’re coming. They always will migrate. Climate change predicts even more. Let’s do what we can as safely and humanely as possible.
Kill the coyote cow! Neutralize the ugly politics around border policies. As pointed out by
Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh and
Ariel G. Ruiz Soto in
Shifting Patterns and Policies Reshape Migration to U.S.-Mexico Border in Major Ways in 2023:
The year was marked by other trends, including the continued increase in the irregular arrival of families, with family encounters
surpassing those of single adult migrants in August and September. Encounters of families, in particular Mexicans, have surged since
the end of Title 42, which had been applied primarily to Mexicans and northern Central Americans.
As Uncle Joe says:
We are a nation of possibilities! We don’t
need to fear strangers at our borders. Instead we can directly and safely recruit and vet the best of immigrants seeking safety in
ports throughout the Americas. More USARVs, fewer coyotes, less
Cartel profiteering.
However, we believe that once the USARV services become more accessible in convenient locations throughout Mexico and beyond, the
demand for asylum request directly at our borders will most likely trickle down to scant numbers, regardless of restrictions, walls or exemptions.
We’re not going to take existing jobs. We’re going to
create new jobs plus affordable housing!
Air and Marine Operations Operating Locations:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) views the border as a continuum of activities where the physical border is the last line of defense,
not the first. Consequently, CBP's strategies address the threats and challenges along the continuum.
Our nation’s future leadership in this proactive direction may also become a model for the United Nations, as well. Too many desperate refugees
suffer or drown in the Mediterranean and other seas, not to mention those lives lost in our Rio Grande river and other dangerous arid zones.
Do we need more walls? A larger fleet of vessels of hope? Both?
If we don’t want to see thousands of migrants languishing around our borders,
let’s proactively manage the logistics using USARVs with Mission RESCUE as we propose.
The CBP invites you to ask questions, make complaints or compliments, and report crimes online at their
Contact Us
page. On the
Ask Questions
form you can select the topic CBP One App. You can also upload files with your question. This might be useful if you’re having difficulty while
helping someone with the app. Several languages available.
Please collaborate on this Mission RESCUE with your colleagues. Your thoughts and questions appreciated.
Contact your
U.S. Representative and Senator to advocate
for
Mission RESCUE.
Ask all your friends, workmates, social media contacts, followers and neighbors to do the same. You may help to save some lives of our persecuted neighbors!
New Way Forward Act
In order to clear our path to housing productivity with the skillful hands of new immigrants, we also need to repeal outdated legislation that penalizes
and unnecessarily detains migrants. So let’s also show our support for the
New Way Forward Act. Punitive detention actually
costs more per day
than employing our migrants to construct much needed housing as we propose at minimum wages, including providing adequate housing,
instead of forced incarceration. Our mantra:
Don't Restrain > Do retain our migrating neighbors
to render needed productivity!
The problem with ”trickle-down economics” is the trickle!
Is there a valve somewhere?
YOUR MOVE!