Sorry to sound so cruel, but what is cruel is the conditions under which these children have to live when they come to the US.
This:
We’re not seeing an uptick of unaccompanied undocumented kids from Central America showing up in Iowa. They’re in dreadfully over-crowded and ill-equipped government facilities, deteriorating conditions that are why this is a humanitarian crisis within our own borders. Over the first 8 1/2 months of fiscal year 2014, 52,193 unaccompanied children have been taken into custody by the Border Patrol. Taken into custody. An increase in apprehensions of unaccompanied children is up 92 percent from last year.
. . . .
When a kid shows up at the border from Mexico or Canada, for instance, a Border Patrol agent has the legal authority to decide whether that child may be eligible to stay in the country. If not, the child is immediately handed over to officials from her or his home country. But the Wilberforce law—which was passed unanimously by both houses of Congress—liberalized that requirement to say that after being detained at the border, children from non-contiguous countries be turned over to the United States Department of Health and Human Services to receive care and safe housing and then receive legal counsel, and child advocates who can help determine whether they qualify for asylum.
Republicans backed that law, and now they are the ones who don’t want to enforce it but change it. GOP Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho said the administration should “immediately deport” these children and families, which would be an open violation of the 2008 law. Democrats are balking at this idea. Hopefully President Obama will join them.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/10/the-so-called-immigration-border-crisis-is-neither.html
The law sounds humanitarian, but in reality it is extremely impractical and impossible to translate it into reality in a crisis situation such as this one. These children will basically live in refugee camps before long. Each of them needs an adult to sign for them, make sure they go to school, etc. So for the children the situation this law creates is not healthy.
And then, how can we know whether the children already belong to gangs. I am reminded of a family in my neighborhood that, many years ago, moved to another area to avoid the gangs for their early adolescent children. Guess what, the area into which they moved turned into a gang area. The family was nice so I doubt that their children were the cause of the change where they moved.
Some families try to take their children away from gangs only after the child has already been drawn into gang culture. Believe me. The last thing we need is to bring Central American gangs to America.
The law should be changed. We have a Republican House in Congress. It's up to them to take the responsibility that a party has when they are in charge of the House -- either fund decent housing and lots of social workers for these thousands of children (you can't just let these children in to roam the streets and try to get jobs or find schools for themselves) or change the law.
This is an international crisis that should be handled with the help of the UN.
Do you think we could find over 50,000 foster homes for these children?
Here are the numbers of children in foster care in 2012:
On September 30, 2012, there were an
estimated 399,546 children in foster care.
. . . .
During FY 2012, 254,162 children entered foster
care.
. . . .
During FY 2012, 241,254 children exited foster care.
https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/foster.pdf#page=3&view=Children%20Entering,%20In,%20and%20Exiting%20Care
The statistics also show that 47% of these children in foster care are in "nonrelative" foster homes. That means no grandmother, aunt, uncle, etc. to care for the children.
These children from Central America would burden that already inadequately funded and overburdened system with children, many of whom do not even speak English.
If the total number of children coming from Central America over the course of this year is say 100,000, that will constitute maybe around 40% more children in the foster care system than were in it in 2012. Are we going to increase the hiring of social workers by 40%? Where are the children to go to school? If they are under 18, they cannot organize their lives for themselves. Someone has to be legally responsible for them. Each one is entitled to a lawyer. Have you thought about the cost of that?
Because this is an international crisis, I am suggesting that Obama use military funds to take care of these children and use facilities on military bases to house them, educate them, etc. This is an international crisis.
If the crime, etc. is that bad, perhaps the world needs to send UN Peacekeeping troops there to stop the gangs.
Here is a source describing a group that is dealing with the practical problems of accepting as refugees so many children.
One San Antonio-based group is on the front lines of the issue, providing free legal services to many of the unaccompanied children who have crossed the border.
That group is called the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. One thing that RAICES does is provide counsel to undocumented children who, by law, are entitled to legal representation. The group receives no government funding and mainly relies on grants and donations.
RAICES executive director Jonathan Ryan said, every day, the group has attorneys that are consulting undocumented immigrants who are being sheltered by the federal government at Lackland Air Force Base.
"Our core set of services begins with education. We give the children a class called 'know your rights presentation' and it involves some posters with some information and photos to keep them engaged," said Ryan. "We explain to them their rights and their responsibilities to the immigration court, and that (their rights) continue even after they may be released from the shelter."
http://www.kens5.com/story/news/local/2014/07/11/san-antonio-group-provides-free-legal-service-to-immigrant-kids-at-lackland/12510255/
My husband reminds me that the British took in refugee children from Germany during WWII. It is a huge job. If the problems in Central America persist, we could have even more children coming into our foster care system. Social services are not America's strong point. We need to stem this crisis where it is beginning -- in Central America.
The countries involved are CAFTA countries -- Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. We need to review the economic conditions in those countries that may be giving rise to gangs. The answer is not to just knee-jerk respond in a partisan way. These children pose a much larger problem than some Americans want to think.
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