Facts About Cats and Immigrants

Starting off today, and the weekend, with a few interesting facts about cats. I found these on the LitterRobot site. There are thirty things listed there, but I only stole, er, borrowed a few:

1. Cats meow for their humans, not for other cats.
Domesticated cats have evolved alongside humans long enough to know that certain sounds and tones will get us to do as they please. Cats will communicate with different meows to get us to feed them, comfort them, and even adopt them.

That is so true for my four cats. There is a chorus of meows when they all decide to remind me it’s time for chow.

2. A group of cats is called a clowder or a glaring.
You can also refer to a group of cats as a clutter. A group of wild or feral cats is called dowt (or dout) and destruction. Best of all, a group of kittens is a kindle.

And here I thought a Kindle was a reading device. 🙂

3. 30%-50% of cats lack the gene that makes them react to catnip.
If your cat does possess the gene, it will only come to fruition between 3-6 months of age; a kitten any younger will show no signs, one way or the other.

Ah, that explains why Sammy walks right by a catnip toy, while Harry trips out big time. 

Now bear with me as I share a few facts about border security and the great tRump wall. 

According to the American Immigration Policy website a lot of border security is already in place:

Border spending includes staffing and resources needed for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) working at and between United States ports of entry. Interior enforcement is primarily focused on staffing and resources for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), also part of DHS, to apprehend noncitizens in the interior of the country, detention for those undergoing removal proceedings, and the deportation of those ordered removed.

Currently, the number of border and interior enforcement personnel stands at more than 49,000. The number of U.S. Border Patrol agents nearly doubled from Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 to FY 2016. Additionally, the number of ICE agents devoted to its office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) nearly tripled from FY 2003 to FY 2016.

What has this spending bought? The United States currently has over 650 miles of fencing along the Southern border, record levels of staff for ICE and CBP, as well as a fleet of drones, among other resources. Some of these resources have been spent on ill-conceived projects, such as the $1 billion attempt to construct a “virtual fence” along the Southwest border, a project initiated in 2005 that was later scrapped for being ineffective and too costly.

As to the numbers of illegal immigrants living in the United States, the numbers have dropped in recent years and were actually lower in 2016 than at any time since 2004. That is due largely to a significant decline in illegal immigrants coming from Mexico, but the number of those coming from Central America countries has not changed much.

We just have to look at the current detainees at the southern border to see the reality of that. So many are from Guatemala, fleeing from poverty and gang violence.

According to a story in Time Magazine by Stephanie Leutert , an exodus from the country started in the 1980s in the midst of a civil war. It was also a time when people in rural Guatemala were affected by a crisis in the coffee industry, losing their source of income. That crisis was only the first of many the people faced, motivating them to make the long, arduous journey to the United States.

Over recent months, Central American migrants heading to the United States and the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policies aimed at deterring migrants, have captured headlines around the world. But today’s migration from Guatemala, which has a population of 16.5 million, is just the latest phase in three decades of human movement. In the 1980s, hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans left their homes as refugees fleeing a particularly brutal period of the country’s civil war. In the 1990s and 2000s, more migrants headed north, leaving behind economic crisis, grinding poverty, and natural disasters. Today, Guatemalans migrate for various reasons, including to reunite with family members, flee gang violence, particularly by Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and the Barrio 18 groups, or escape endemic domestic or family violence.

For more facts about illegal immigration visit the Pew Research website.

A report on the UpFirst Podcast this morning clarified that the great wall tRump first proposed is not feasible in the mountainous parts of the southern border. It also reported that where barriers are needed, many have been in place in major border cities for years, and money is currently being spent to upgrade them, as well as upgrade other security measures.

What else do we need, and why do we need $5 billion dollars more?

That’s all for me folks. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Be safe. Be happy.

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