Spoker of the House Nancy Pelosi went down to the border this week ( probably for the first time in her life) and pronounced the thousands of children and Central American families presenting themselves to our Border Patrol not as a crisis, but an "opportunity."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/29/pelosi-calls-surge-illegal-immigrant-children-opportunity/
Somebody should point out to Pelosi that nobody is denying the humanity of these unfortunate people who are flooding across our border not even trying to evade the Border Patrol. The issue here is that our government has declared our border to be basically non-existent. How are we going to continue to absorb this wave of humanity that our government is encouraging to come in even greater numbers? Bill O'Reilly correctly pointed out that we are creating an instant underclass-tens of thousands of people who arrive here poor, uneducated, without professional skills, and in need of government support. Some shrewd activists will use these new numbers to complain that the poverty rate and unemployment rate among Hispanics is outrageously high compared to (non-Hispanic) whites. It is all proof that we are a racist society-even as we care for the new arrivals.
No, Ms Pelosi. This is not an opportunity (except for the Democrats to enlarge their voter base). This is a crisis.
Somebody should point out to Pelosi that nobody is denying the humanity of these unfortunate people who are flooding across our border not even trying to evade the Border Patrol.
ReplyDeleteVery good, Mr. Fouse. Now, what EXACTLY SHOULD we be doing with them?
(Does shiploads of Jews crossing the Atlantic in 1938 come to mind?)
Siarlys,
ReplyDeleteThere is a vast difference between peoples fleeing annihilation and those fleeing poverty. I will concede that in Honduras there is terrible violence going on.
OK, Miggie wants to sic dogs on the kids, and drive them back. If a few die of the bites they sustain, so much the better.
ReplyDeleteGary declined to endorse meeting them with machine gun fire, so I doubt he would support attack dogs either.
Gary admits its a humanitarian dilemma. He is certain whatever the Obama administration may be doing is wrong. But he doesn't propose what he considers a sound policy -- probably because anything definitive he could say would violate one political line or another.
So, its complicated.
Very roughly, I would say, we need some containment camps close to the border, run inside by humanitarian agencies, patrolled outside by those trained to patrol and apprehend, then do a series of interviews, probably find ways to send at least half home, but give consideration to
1) credible accounts of direct and immediate threats of violence or death,
2) particularly if there are ways to verify the details (possibly calling on embassy staff in countries of origin to examine if the story is credible)
3) children who have adult family already in the United States.
Obviously, children admitted based on genuine case for political asylum would have to have adoptive families to receive them, we can't just turn them loose as minors.
We cannot, of course, take on all the humanitarian refugees from the entire world... but again, that is exactly what some Americans said about Jewish refugees from Europe. Nobody really believed they faced outright annihilation back then... and maybe some of these kids DO face annihilation now?