I had a driveway moment this morning. You ever have those? I’ve had numerous ones over the years, that moment when you are listening to a story or report on NPR and it’s so compelling you can’t get out of the car until the report is finished? This one dealt with the influx of an estimated 5,000 migrants headed for the US border while US officials are meeting with Mexican officials to address the always present border crisis.

Stories on migrants at the border is hardly newsworthy anymore. I mean it’s been in the headlines almost daily since George W. Bush was in office. That’s the thing you gain with growing older – an institutional memory. I can remember all sorts of things that have made headlines in my lifetime: the assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK; federal busing fights; civil rights marches; protests of various wars; the Six Day War of 1967; that time Reagan sold arms to Iran all in an organized effort to overthrow the government of Nicaragua; protests against police brutality (taking place numerous times in my lifetime because we never learn); and an open border prior to 9-11; and the Mariel boatlift, otherwise known as that time Americans felt compelled to rescue migrants seeking refuge.

The point of the report I heard this morning seemed to be to ding the Biden administration. It struck a nerve with me simply because I can remember when George W. grew frustrated with his Republican Congressional leaders for failing to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Bush’s administration accepted a record number of refugees and asylum seekers and supported bipartisan immigration reform effort that included a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, in exchange for stricter enforcement of border security and laws mandating legal work status. While Trump calls immigrants “vermin,” George W. expressed his support for DACA, much to the chagrin of Evangelicals who have a well-documented fear of the mixing of white blood with anything but more whites.

I think media is missing the real story behind the caravan of migrants headed to the border. How is it people living in remote or rural communities throughout the whole of South America get it in their heads that packing up everything and heading to the US border is going to provide a better future? Leaving family and friends is never an easy thing. What makes them think that life will be better off in the US? Where are they getting their information from?

My friend David left his country of the Sudan back when he was a young boy. He took a life-threatening journey to a refugee camp in Kenya. He didn’t really have a plan other than to save his life. He walked a thousand miles, sometimes with a handful of friends, sometimes alone, to escape the North Sudanese Rebels who wanted to force the teen to fight alongside them. He’s told me stories of that journey, hard stories. He spent a year in that refugee camp before being granted entrance to one of several countries. He chose the US because the canvas tent that had been his home in Kenya had a US flag on it. He could have gone to Canada or the UK and sometimes I remind him that would have been the better choice because at least he’d have universal healthcare and better transportation in the UK, although we both agree the local food fare leaves a lot to be desired. Thank god for immigrants and their spices, we tease.

He was sent to North Dakota, this teenager from Sudan. He hates the cold. They put him to work in a slaughterhouse because triggering a child of war with a job in a bloody slaughterhouse is the humane thing to do. Eventually, with the help from a NPR family, David got into a uni in Utah and has made a career in the military, giving back he says to the country that has given him so much.

Before he arrived in the US, David believed two things: Upon his arrival he’d be given a house and a car. Just given to him outright. He believed this because of all the rumors floating around the refugee camp. America, after all, was the wealthiest country in the world, right? He absolutely believed that his house and car was waiting for him to claim.

And he believed this without the aid of Social Media. He didn’t own a cell phone in those days. Most Americans didn’t even participate in Social Media back then. It was sheer word of mouth rumor. But today’s migrant, they have access to all sorts of rumor-mongering via Social Media. So much so that even the most remote rural villager could be fed a lie or a rumor via X or Threads or Instagram or Facebook or even Snapchat, or countless other cyber sites.

How is it thousands of migrants begin the long journey from their remote or rural villages, or from the urban areas of South America and begin heading to the US border at the same time? Have they heard some rumor that they, too, will receive a car and a home upon crossing the border? What promises have they received via Social Media?

That’s the story that NPR missed today. That’s the story no media is covering. What lies are these migrants being told and who is behind the telling of them? Is there a political operative at work here?

And the other story they are failing report is that immigration reform is the duty of Congress, not the president, no matter what party is in control.

Don’t believe me? Ask George W.