Beneath the Screams
The United States is faced with a moral crisis. Our nation is taking children from their parents and holding thousands of them in detention. We are not starving them, but we are abusing them. We have snatched them from their parents, and we are not offering them a sure way to reunite their families. The mental and emotional damage is difficult to estimate, but it is sure.
There is a tremendous amount of emotion in this issue. In the House of Representatives hearing on the Inspector General’s Report, Elijah Cummings, Democratic Congressman from Maryland, ignored Mr. Horowitz at the table, and eloquently demanded the Congress free the children. Multiple reporters and new commentators have emotionally broken down on air; Facebook, Twitter, and other social media are full of the arguments about what America should do. It’s hard to post “rational” comments on those, it is so much easier to scream out.
So let’s start with the facts. The facts are the government of the United States has altered the immigration enforcement policy on the Southern Border. No “statutory law” has been changed; what changed was the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice enforcement policy.
Crossing the border is and always was illegal. So is driving faster than the speed limit. Both of these offenses were considered “civil” offenses, in neither case was the lawbreaker held in jail. The government of the United States for many years (and many Presidents) treated illegal border crossings as a civil offense; offenders were picked up, processed, and returned across the border.
The Trump Administration has changed that interpretation. They have criminalized border crossing. They have ordered the Justice Department to prosecute every case of illegal border crossing to the full extent of the law. The analogy is: now when you get caught for speeding, you are arrested and go to jail.
There have been “unaccompanied minors” crossing the border for several years. This came to a head in the last couple of years of the Obama Administration, and the immigration service has had to find ways to house and care for these teenagers. So when the argument is made that Obama, Bush, and Clinton held children, it’s true. They held these teenagers, crossing by themselves without parents.
They also held those few children who crossed with parents, but whose parents committed other crimes beyond the crossing itself. Clearly if a parent with child tried to evade the border patrol, much like those poor folks killed this week in a tragic car chase, then the parent would be jailed until trial, and the child would need to be cared for.
So what has happened to create today’s crisis? By criminalizing illegal crossings, the Trump Administration has created a whole new class of immigrants who are jailed until trial. Court rulings have made it clear that the minor children cannot be jailed (their parents committed a crime, they didn’t) and so the families cannot be held together. Now, all of a sudden (since the April implementation of the policy) the Border Patrol is faced with thousands of minors to care for, ranging from the teenagers they were used to, to babies. They weren’t ready for the numbers, and they certainly weren’t ready for the little ones.
So in answer to the right-wing cries that every President did this: not true. In answer to the claim the “the law is the law:” no – it’s changed.
And to answer the President’s cry that it’s up to Congress to fix this: no, you changed it, you can fix it.
And meanwhile the kids pile up at the border. And it’s not only the change in policy that created this crisis. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security knew that there was a “spring” influx of migrants heading toward the border. In the past there has been increases in the hearing officers, judges, and attorneys needed to quickly evaluate the claims of immigrants for amnesty. This time, DHS did nothing.
The lines to cross “legally” are days and weeks long. The Mexican border towns, long known for their lawlessness, are dangerous places for these families to wait. And as they wait, more and more migrants pile up behind them. The pressure builds to pay the last “bribe” to find someone to lead them across the border, illegally. Once they cross, they turn themselves into the Border Patrol. And since they are “criminals” their children are taken away.
The Trump Administration is wholly responsible for creating this crisis. At every turn, they have made choices to exacerbate the situation. And, just as DHS wasn’t ready at the border, they weren’t ready for the influx of kids they’ve created. They are scrambling to find places for them, building tent cities in the desert, and shipping children all over the country (reports of young children being sent to Florida and New York City.) No one; no one for or against the policy, has any assurance that those children can be tracked and linked back to their parents. Adults have been deported, unable to regain their children, and unable to get them back. We stole their kids.
Besides the horror of government sanctioned kidnapping, there is the economic cost. Who will pay for these children who get “left” in America? Perhaps a new private industry will grow up; right now the defense giant General Dynamics is making a fortune providing instant housing. The tent city in the desert of Texas costs $10 million.
We have a border crisis, and a moral crisis. And we aren’t even sure we can get the kids back, whatever we decide about the parents. It grows darker and darker, an artificial crisis, created on purpose, with tragic results.
