RICHARD FERNANDEZ: The Border Crisis:

On both sides of the Atlantic borders have become a big issue in the guise of the equivalent question of whether a country can restrict the entry of migrants to numbers the electorate regards as sustainable.

In the US the family impact of arresting illegal aliens has intensified political hostility nearly to the point of physical conflict. The New York Times sadly notes Trump supporters no longer even listen to the media’s frequent denunciations of the incumbent president. How can they stand him? “This includes portions of the wealthy college-educated people in swing counties … and the endless stream of tough cable news coverage and bad headlines about Mr. Trump only galvanizes them further.” . . .

In Europe things are if anything worse. A growing coalition of parties demanding control over national boundaries was threatening the future of the European Union itself — or at least the chancellorship of Angela Merkel. “European Union leaders gather in Brussels on Sunday in an attempt to bridge their deep divisions over migration, an issue that has been splitting them for years and now poses a fresh threat to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.”

Yet the biggest aspect of crisis, even though it is under-reported, is in countries close to where 22.5 million have fled imploding societies, the biggest such tide of displacement since WW 2. The numbers are staggering. Turkey has 3.5 million Syrians refugees, tiny Lebanon a million; 1.5 million Afghans are camped in Pakistan; more than a million Sudanese are cooling their heels in Uganda. In South America one million Venezuelans fleeing Bolivarian socialism have lodged in Colombia. In Central America multitudes of “families and unaccompanied children” daily flee their own crime-ridden societies for the US.

Read the whole thing.