Hundreds of African migrants are battling with Mexican National Guard and riot police in the streets of southern Mexico. American reporters are parachuting in to write about a "plight" involving those migrants, as well as Middle Easterners, Russians, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis, Ethiopians, and a diaspora of other migrants from around the world. Human rights groups are flocking to their aid in what looks like an emerging new Cause.
What's this all about, and should Americans care?
The main emerging narrative, rarely challenged or contextualized, is how racist, unsafe, and unjust it is that Mexico would stop these deserving asylum seekers short of the American border.
But since this Mexican standoff is likely to go on for some time, with the outcome having consequences for U.S. border and immigration policy, a more fulsome explanation of the drama is in order.