Immigration Debate and Illegal Minors

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Over the last two years, a crisis has developed on our Southern border: a children’s migration of increasing scale, in which thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central America have made the dangerous journey to the U.S.-Mexico border, many apparently motivated by the belief that some sort of legal status awaits them. [...]

The young migrants are not, obviously, deeply familiar with the ins and outs of U.S. politics; they’re following smuggler-spread rumors, for the most part. But the rumors exist for a reason: They’re fueled by a sense that “if you want to get into the U.S., now is the time,” a scholar of Latin America told The Washington Post. And the Obama White House has conceded that a “misperception of U.S. immigration policy” is playing a role — one significant enough to dispatch Vice President Joe Biden to Central America to clarify that we are not actually opening our borders to any minor who reaches them.

-- Ross Douthat at The New York Times

Although Obama has been fairly heavyhanded in deportations, there has been some more shows of compassion toward children immigrants. And we are in the middle of another round of debate over immigration enforcement and amnesty.

Comments

[geezer-also.livejournal.com]

And in the mean time without enough federal money to provide for them, the local government scrambles to come up with the funds.
Oh well, at least it's on the opposite side of the county from me, and it won't affect my city's budget (sarcasm, since the conditions are appalling)

On a more curious note. I hadn't really given this much thought this week (Iraq and World cup I guess) but it dawned on me I hadn't noticed any articles on the subject in the County wide newspaper. So I just ent an looked on every page in today's paper, and not a word. (back to sarcasm) Perhaps the problem has gone away?

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

Mexico is even harsher on illegal immigration than we are, so it's no easy feat for other central Americans to get through to our borders.

The Great Wall of China worked... as a tourist attraction.

[pacotelic.livejournal.com]

He's watching you.

[angelcerv25.livejournal.com]

I checked out a slideshow of the warehouses they're putting these kids in. I thought my group homes were subpar at times. There are gym-sized rooms with little kids in blankets crowded onto every available inch.

[madscience.livejournal.com]

Hyperbole much? The firearm homicide rate in Mexico is about 2.8 times the rate in the US.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

300 Illegal Immigrant Children, Families Flown from Texas to San Diego: ... http://t.co/4zRYStIA7G (http://t.co/4zRYStIA7G)/s/ukHB #OiP (https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OiP&src=hash) #tcot (https://twitter.com/search?q=%23tcot&src=hash) pic.twitter.com/1KATAOZntw (http://t.co/1KATAOZntw)

— Boo (@P4tR10tBoo) June 22, 2014 (https://twitter.com/P4tR10tBoo/statuses/480858630648913920)

Obama administration officials said the government is planning to open new facilities to detain and house the influx of migrants and ease the burden on detention centers in the Rio Grande Valley where horrifying conditions have been reported. Administration officials also said the government would send more immigration judges and lawyers to the region to bolster enforcement and removal proceedings. “We are surging our resources to increase our capacity to detain,” Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters on a conference call, emphasizing the administration’s aim was to make conditions more “humane.”

[...]

Dara Lind, who’s been all over the story, notes that “the current system was built for 8,000 kids – not 50,000.”

-- Sully's Dish (http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/06/23/babysitting-on-the-border/)