Inside Obama's Family Deportation Mill
Immigration officials are opening new lockups for moms and kids seeking refuge from violent homelands. So much for compassion.
This past summer, the "border kids"tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras detained after crossing into the United Statesbecame the country's latest immigration crisis. Aid groups mobilized, Congress held hearings, and pleas for compassion resounded at the highest levels of government. "These are our kids," Vice President Joe Biden told a group of lawyers in August, urging them to offer the children free legal representation.
But the Obama administration hasn't extended that caring attitude to another huge group of Central American migrant kidsthose traveling with a parent or guardian, usually their mother. In fiscal 2014, according to data from US Customs and Border Protection, these so-called family unit apprehensions nearly quadrupled. By comparison, the increase in kids arriving at the border alonethe surge that put Capitol Hill in a crisis modewas a relatively modest 77 percent.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/12/family-detention-artesia-dilley-immigration-central-america