Don't Go To The Border Mr. President...

[Lord Jim]

Well, it's a start...(albeit a very small start)

U.S. Flies 38 to Honduras as Part of Expedited Deportations

Homeland Security Says It Is Stepping Up Enforcement as it Deals With Immigrant Surge

Thirty eight women and children recently detained at the U.S. border were flown home to Honduras on Monday, in what U.S. officials say is the first of an expected increase in expedited deportations.

"This is just the initial wave," [I wouldn't really call 38 a "wave]the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. "We expect additional adults with children will be returned to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador soon, based on the results of removal proceedings or expedited removal."

More than 57,000 unaccompanied minors, and thousands more young children chaperoned by parents or other adults, have flooded across the U.S.-Mexico border since October, overwhelming U.S. immigration officials and creating what President Barack Obama has called an "urgent humanitarian situation."

U.S. officials say the perceptions that children who make it to the U.S. can stay are encouraging more to make the dangerous journey north. They say they hope to persuade would-be migrants that this is false.

The deportees, including 21 children aged 18 months to 15 years, were flown from El Paso, Texas, to the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, near the country's Caribbean coast. San Pedro and nearby cities are the top Central American source of unaccompanied minors traveling to the U.S., said an internal Department of Homeland Security study. The U.S. has deported some 82,000 Central Americans, mostly adults, since October, the agency said.

House Republicans are expected to discuss the child-migration influx Tuesday at their weekly meeting in Washington.

On Monday, two Texas lawmakers—Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, and Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democrat—said they would offer legislation to hasten deportation proceedings for Central American children who arrived in the U.S. alone. Some Republicans are pressing to tie such a change in law to approval of Mr. Obama's request for $3.7 billion in emergency funds.[that sounds like a good deal to me.]

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner said he had no comment on Monday's deportations.

U.S. law has long allowed for expedited removal proceedings for families crossing the border without authorization, just as it does for adults traveling without children. But because the government had almost no beds in facilities suitable for families as immigration surged, nearly everyone was released and ordered to report to immigration court.

In response, the Department of Homeland Security late last month opened a temporary family detention facility that can hold 700 people in Artesia, N.M. Soon after, the U.S. began sending apprehended adults traveling with children to the center.

The Monday deportations also are a result of the administration's move to increase the number of immigration judges and asylum officers to process the cases faster, the Homeland Security statement said.

Immigrant advocates argue there is no reason to fast-track these deportations and they oppose detaining families during the process. They say alternatives to detention, such as ankle bracelets, are more humane and work to assure people show up for court hearings. [the resources do not exist to monitor this many people with ankle bracelets ]U.S. officials say these methods increasingly are being used as well.

Like others in recent weeks, Monday's deportees were greeted in San Pedro by Honduran first lady Ana García de Hernández, who is leading a task force aimed at dissuading people from leaving Honduras. In addition to the U.S. deportees, Mrs. García de Hernández met with several hundred more young migrants deported from Mexico.

Mexico also has stepped up immigration enforcement recently on and near its porous southern border.[better late than never.]

So far this year, Mexico has deported 48,500 Central Americans, according to the Mexican government.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/u-s-flie ... 1405381419

[Econoline]

RICK PERRY, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF TEXAS, SENDING TROOPS TO FIGHT EVIL BROWN KIDS

SERIOUSLY? The bold plan to deal with the tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors just trying to infiltrate America with their filthy diseases and “criminality” to Live The American Dream because USA is No. 1!!!!!! is to greet them with troops to — what? Shove guns in their faces and tell them to take their dirty undocumented blankies and go home, since, as we learned in California, screaming at them did not work, WHO COULD HAVE PREDICTED? Is this not a job Sean Hannity can handle his own self with the proper boat and a baseball cap and a big ol’ keep-the-kids-away-gun?

Also, too, hmmmm. Armed (I assume they will be armed because how else will they defend themselves from the scary evil children?) troops facing off against kids who would just like to have some asylum, please, from the effed up countries they are fleeing — what could go wrong? I mean, besides maybe someone shooting up some kids, but it’s not like they weren’t warned that this is America, damnit, brown children need not apply, so really, they’re sort of asking for it, when you think about it.

Read more at http://wonkette.com/554736/rick-perry-p ... wjuI75J.99

[oldr_n_wsr]

Well that's one way to put it.

[Lord Jim]

I ran that article through my hyperbole filter, and the only thing that was left was the word "and"....

[BoSoxGal]

While I don't agree with the underlying sentiment, I must admit that's a

[oldr_n_wsr]

The National Guard should have been on the border years ago. How many time and how many bills were passed to secure the border? Yet.....

[Crackpot]

What we really need is to force illegal immigrants Into a border long game of red rover.

[Econoline]

The question remains, what are those National Guard troops supposed to be doing, especially regarding this current wave of underage Central Americans who are simply crossing the border and surrendering to whoever's handy? Shooting them? Kicking them in the balls? Hugging them so hard they get uncomfortable and leave? Passing out poisoned candy?

We have laws explaining the process that's supposed to happen, but without additional funding from Congress, following those laws will only lead to a larger and larger backlog. Crackpot's suggestion is the only constructive proposal I've seen lately.

I ran that article through my hyperbole filter, and the only thing that was left was the word "and"....

You missed a few the's and a's. And I think you used your snark filter, not your hyperbole filter. Turn it off and have a good laugh.

[oldr_n_wsr]

The lack of enforcement of our borders, for many years, has caused this "invasion". Congress needs to close the Bush "hole" so that anyone on the border can be turned back right away as opposed to the "process" that must happen if the "border crosser" happens to be non Mexican.
And isn't anyone condemning the parents of these children?? Who would send their child on a journey across a country alone? Anyone?

[Econoline]

So Guatemalan, Salvadoran, and Honduran kids would be "turned back" to...Mexico? Mexico doesn't want them. And do you really not think that there could be such a thing as a genuine refugee? (That's what the hearings mandated in the 2008 law were supposed to determine.)

Maybe we should take a page from Mexico's playbook and let them in with a wink and a nod, and then encourage them to keep going all the way to Canada? Just a thought.

[Long Run]

We have laws explaining the process that's supposed to happen

And mostly, we have the law of unintended consequences. Well-intentioned but poorly thought out law (sound familiar), plus very clear signals from the administration about lax border enforcement, leads to a trickle, then a stream, now a flood, and next a tsunami, of refugees.

[Big RR]

Like it or not, we have unaccompanied kids coming to our borders, and at least some of them would meet the classification for political asylum. For example, I have one client I am handling a case for (pro bono) who was 17 when she showed up at the border with an infant. In her country she was raped by a prominent man in the town, and had the baby; when her uncle found out he forced her to tell the police who "investigated" and then told her that she must be crazy to accuse this man, threatening her with commitment to an asylum if she persisted. The local authorities also began to investigate whether she could keep the baby, and threatened to put her up for adoption. Finally, someone from the man's family (he apparently has ties to a local drug cartel) threatened her and the baby's life. I have some documentation of this (from her family back home) and am pursuing an asylum application. After all the rhetoric dies down, certainly we, as Americans, can open our doors to this young woman and baby--at least the America I think we are (and can be) has room for them. Imagine what would happen if she were just turned away--where would she end up? As a prostitute in a border town? Don't we owe it to ourselves to do our best to investigate whether any of these are legitimate refugees from violence and persecution in their home countries.

Sure it costs money--but so dies sending Israel military aid; so does propping up a puppet regime in Afghanistan (or Iraq). so does many of our senseless government projects. And the rewards could be great; people given asylum here might be among the most fervent defenders of America. Can we really afford to turn children away? If we don't, it will cost us a little money, but if we do, the cost will be much higher and include our very souls.

Clearly we cannot let everyone who knocks in, but likewise we can't turn away the defenseless who seek our aid and throw them to to the jackals. Let's at least treat them with a little humanity, even if it costs a little.

[Guinevere]

THIS!

Compassion is priceless.

[Econoline]

Don't we owe it to ourselves to do our best to investigate whether any of these are legitimate refugees from violence and persecution in their home countries? [...] Clearly we cannot let everyone who knocks in, but likewise we can't turn away the defenseless who seek our aid and throw them to to the jackals. Let's at least treat them with a little humanity, even if it costs a little.

P.S.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

[Econoline]

Interesting partisan/ethnic divide:

And sorry, but this second image is too wide and I don't know how to re-size it:
http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/i ... tion4a.jpg

source

[rubato]

Anyone who claims a "lack of enforcement" is repeating ignorant drivel from FOX.



The number of border patrol agents increased by more than 5 x .

In fact enforcement increased so much during the Clinton years that immigrants started dying by hundreds each year trying to walk across an inhospitable desert:







Enforcement increased by more than five times but the only time immigration went down is when the Republicans collapsed the US economy.

yrs,
rubato

[Econoline]

And isn't anyone condemning the parents of these children?? Who would send their child on a journey across a country alone? Anyone?

This next piece isn't by me; I happened across it on someone else's Facebook page, but I think it answers this question perfectly:

Hunger is a powerful thing. So is fear. Seeing both in your children's eyes? That will drive the strongest dad or mom over the edge. Everyone wants to think their children will have a better life than they had. How horrible must life be that a parent will send a child on a thousand-mile journey - unaccompanied...with only a slim hope they will get to a better place?

Think about how desperate you'd have to be to send your 10 year-old daughter into the desert with one of those 'trustworthy' coyotes. Maybe you're "lucky" enough to be able to send her 12 year-old brother along to watch out for her. So desperate that you'll give that coyote every dime you've been able to scrape together your whole life for just his thin promise to deliver them to the border...if they make it that far.

You gotta be a special kind of selfish, cold-hearted shrew to scream "GO HOME!" in that child's face.

That's not my idea of what it means to be American. That's not even my idea of what it means to be Human.

[Guinevere]

Amen Econo.

[rubato]

Agreed.


yrs,
rubato