How can we stem the child flood of '14?
Remember the old question TV stations sometimes played before their
late-night news shows — “It’s 10 o’clock, do you know where your children are?”
We could ask a similar question of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala — “It’s
2014, do you know where your children are?”
Of course, the answer for thousands of those children is, “In America.”
In recent weeks there’s been a new twist in the immigration quandary with unaccompanied minors crossing the Mexican border into the United States. From reports it’s not a trickle, but a flood of largely Central American youngsters apparently sent northward by their families to escape unrest in their home countries.
I know it’s difficult to keep up with all the news happening around the world, but I can’t recall any recent news stories about unrest and violence in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
At least not since the ’80s and the days of the Contras, the Sandinistas and covert American intervention in the old banana republics.
To my way of thinking, if things are so desperate in those countries in our hemisphere that people essentially are evacuating their children by sending them off by themselves for a 1,200-mile journey, perhaps the United States should pay more attention to them than the Middle East. They’ve been fighting one another in the Mideast since Cain bashed Abel with a rock, and no doubt will continue to fight for the foreseeable future.
That’s not to say we need to meddle in Central America again (we have a lengthy history of that) but if there are troubles of this magnitude this close to home they definitely bear more scrutiny. That would be a good place to start trying to find a solution to the child flood of ’14.
In the meantime, the U.S. is stuck with figuring out what to do with these minors. Apparently centers along the border are overflowing and authorities are shipping the children to centers deeper within the country. And those centers and federal authorities aren’t quite sure what to do, either.
America has had no problem rescuing children from hostile situations, such as bringing youngsters from Britain during World War II, or even retrieving children from Cuba and Vietnam. But this is a unique situation. It’s illegal immigration to be sure, but it’s also a humanitarian issue because of the ages of the immigrants. These are children who basically could be considered refugees more than illegal immigrants.
Whether we call them illegal immigrants or refugees, it seems they’ve almost overwhelmed U.S. immigration services and are adding a burden to human service agencies from Texas to California. It is one thing to round up adults who have entered the country illegally and deport them; it’s another to round up children and just let them loose on their own back across the border or in their countries of origin.
I don’t think we’ve gone that far yet since the routine matter for dealing with such cases is to find family in their country and place the children in their custody. But the sheer enormity of doing that will give even bureaucrats nightmares. One suggestion offered by USA TODAY columnist DeWayne Wickham is to take them to Guantanamo Bay. Not the prison where terror suspects are held but the naval base that’s been used as a detention center before, and that the Department of Health and Human Services be given responsibility for them.
Naturally, we’re hearing the standard arguments about securing our borders, building fences, doing more to keep people out as well as the latest verse in the old song about needing immigration reform. And, as usual, nothing long-term or effective is likely to come from either side on this perpetual issue.
It could just be my cynicism, but do you ever think the politicians really want to resolve the immigration issue? Think about how long it has been an issue, how politicians regularly thump the immigration drum but don’t really do anything more, especially the current Do-Nothing Congress. I think the Big Flat City Council has dealt with more issues in the last few years than Congress.
Why should we expect anything different when it comes to finding a viable
resolution to the child flood of ’14? And while those in power, those whose job
is to resolve problems (at least in theory) stumble about, the flood
continues.
Of course, the answer for thousands of those children is, “In America.”
In recent weeks there’s been a new twist in the immigration quandary with unaccompanied minors crossing the Mexican border into the United States. From reports it’s not a trickle, but a flood of largely Central American youngsters apparently sent northward by their families to escape unrest in their home countries.
I know it’s difficult to keep up with all the news happening around the world, but I can’t recall any recent news stories about unrest and violence in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
At least not since the ’80s and the days of the Contras, the Sandinistas and covert American intervention in the old banana republics.
To my way of thinking, if things are so desperate in those countries in our hemisphere that people essentially are evacuating their children by sending them off by themselves for a 1,200-mile journey, perhaps the United States should pay more attention to them than the Middle East. They’ve been fighting one another in the Mideast since Cain bashed Abel with a rock, and no doubt will continue to fight for the foreseeable future.
That’s not to say we need to meddle in Central America again (we have a lengthy history of that) but if there are troubles of this magnitude this close to home they definitely bear more scrutiny. That would be a good place to start trying to find a solution to the child flood of ’14.
In the meantime, the U.S. is stuck with figuring out what to do with these minors. Apparently centers along the border are overflowing and authorities are shipping the children to centers deeper within the country. And those centers and federal authorities aren’t quite sure what to do, either.
America has had no problem rescuing children from hostile situations, such as bringing youngsters from Britain during World War II, or even retrieving children from Cuba and Vietnam. But this is a unique situation. It’s illegal immigration to be sure, but it’s also a humanitarian issue because of the ages of the immigrants. These are children who basically could be considered refugees more than illegal immigrants.
Whether we call them illegal immigrants or refugees, it seems they’ve almost overwhelmed U.S. immigration services and are adding a burden to human service agencies from Texas to California. It is one thing to round up adults who have entered the country illegally and deport them; it’s another to round up children and just let them loose on their own back across the border or in their countries of origin.
I don’t think we’ve gone that far yet since the routine matter for dealing with such cases is to find family in their country and place the children in their custody. But the sheer enormity of doing that will give even bureaucrats nightmares. One suggestion offered by USA TODAY columnist DeWayne Wickham is to take them to Guantanamo Bay. Not the prison where terror suspects are held but the naval base that’s been used as a detention center before, and that the Department of Health and Human Services be given responsibility for them.
Naturally, we’re hearing the standard arguments about securing our borders, building fences, doing more to keep people out as well as the latest verse in the old song about needing immigration reform. And, as usual, nothing long-term or effective is likely to come from either side on this perpetual issue.
It could just be my cynicism, but do you ever think the politicians really want to resolve the immigration issue? Think about how long it has been an issue, how politicians regularly thump the immigration drum but don’t really do anything more, especially the current Do-Nothing Congress. I think the Big Flat City Council has dealt with more issues in the last few years than Congress.
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When you are dealing with kids -- you can't just push them back over the border. It is bad enough that the parents took the chance (and spent $9000) to send them to America .. not knowing if they would be raped or molested ... we have to send them back to a responsible adult... not sure that includes Mexico that already has trouble feeding its own.
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