A Long March Toward the Dimming US Beacon of Opportunity

Asylum seekers are amassing at the United States (US) border with Mexico. They are seeking fulfillment of a democratic promise they have believed for many years that the US stands for all people in spite of color, creed and religion.

Some asylum seekers have traveled in excess of 3,000 miles to get to the promised land of opportunity and of hope. They have traveled, according to CNN, by bus, by train and on foot to flee economic hardship and violence in places like Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. 

These are the people of the so called "Caravan" - journeying to the US in search of that beacon of hope which every modern US president, with the exception of Donald Trump, has always kept a glow in honor of democracy and of humanity.

At the US border, however, the people of the "Caravan" are encountering a cold reception of the reality of a changed US policy toward new immigrants.Things are not what they used to be. There is a rising anti-immigrant culture in the US. 

As scores of asylum seekers camp out in tents at the US border at Tijuana, Mexico, only eight were allowed into the US processing center on Tuesday.

More asylum seekers will come soon. They too will become encamped at the US border hoping for faster processing of their asylum claims. Yet, like those already amassing at the border, new arrivals will meet the sad reality that the beacon of hope the US once boasted of offering, has dimmed significantly, thus holding out very little promise that they will ever get to live the American Dream, nor the opportunity to love and to serve the US.