It seems like some kind of flashback:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cunaccompanied minors\u201d stacking up at Border Patrol stations along the Mexican border.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cSoft sided\u201d shelters are up \u2013 we call them \u201ctents\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0And lines of mostly teenaged boys are being processed.\u00a0\u00a0This isn\u2019t the Trump Administration, but it certainly looks like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We need to be clear about what caused the Trump issue with children, and what\u2019s happening now.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Throughout our history, folks who came across the border \u201cillegally\u201d were treated as those who committed a \u201ccivil\u201d crime \u2013 like getting a traffic ticket.\u00a0\u00a0Yes, it was \u201cagainst\u201d the law, and yes, they were brought in front of a court for the action; but it wasn\u2019t a jailable offense.\u00a0\u00a0Fines or \u201ctime served\u201d was the usual result.\u00a0\u00a0Then the \u201ccivil\u201d process of determining their immigration status \u2013 in short \u2013 whether they could stay or were deported – proceeded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the Trump Administration determined that crossing the border was now a \u201ccrime\u201d requiring the \u201ccriminal\u201d to be held in custody, jailed, until trial.\u00a0\u00a0Since families came across the border, and the Courts said that children could not be held in \u201cjail\u201d, then all of the children of those families became \u201cunaccompanied minors\u201d and were taken from their parents.\u00a0\u00a0Some, no make that many, were \u201clost\u201d in the \u201csystem\u201d. There are still over one hundred who have not been returned to their parents \u2013 some for more than two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And what happened to the \u201cactual\u201d unaccompanied minors who crossed the border? What about the thirteen or fifteen-year-old who came across without a family, without parents? In the Trump Administration, those kids were immediately deported, sent back. That solved \u201cour\u201d problem, but it put those kids in even greater danger. The most dangerous part of their journey was getting to and across the border. The US policy was to send them back, sometimes into the hands of the \u201ccoyotes\u201d. They were often the ones that took advantage of them, financially and worse, as they took them over the \u201cline\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But most of those kids went \u201caway\u201d, so the Trump Administration didn\u2019t have to deal with them. So what\u2019s changed? Three things have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, the Biden Administration is done with the \u201ccriminalization\u201d of border crossing.\u00a0\u00a0So families coming across are processed, then released to return for trial later.\u00a0\u00a0That worked fine before Trump, and it\u2019s working well now.\u00a0\u00a0Many who come across have family here, ready to support them.\u00a0\u00a0There are also agencies willing to help them out.\u00a0\u00a0So since the adults aren\u2019t \u201ccriminalized\u201d, then the children can stay with them. Ultimately a Court determines their status, and they are allowed to stay or are deported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second, The Biden Administration has determined that it in inhumane to send unaccompanied minors, mostly teenagers and mostly boys, back into the dangers of the border zones of Mexico.\u00a0\u00a0Those same kids have been stacked over there, some for months or more, at risk.\u00a0 So when they come across the border, they are taken into custody. \u00a0They are safer, but they are a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Third, the little detail that has upset our entire world:\u00a0\u00a0COVID.\u00a0\u00a0In the middle of an economic crisis in Central America, there\u2019s a world pandemic.\u00a0\u00a0It certainly didn\u2019t make anything better in El Salvador or Honduras.\u00a0\u00a0If anything, COVID has made things so much worse, that more people are willing to risk the journey to find somewhere better in America.\u00a0\u00a0And the idea of crowding anyone, kids, families, adults, into some custodial setting now has a new name: super spreader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And since gangs are the greatest threat in those nations, it is the young men who are at greatest risks.\u00a0\u00a0Parents are faced with choices:\u00a0\u00a0either their boys join the gang, or they are killed.\u00a0\u00a0So they are sending many of their kids on the dangerous journey North to someplace where they might have a better chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of those \u201cunaccompanied minors\u201d have some connection in the US, relatives \u2013 some here legally, some not.\u00a0\u00a0Unlike the Trump era, there\u2019s a plan for getting them to relatives \u2013 folks that can sponsor them while the Courts determine their status.\u00a0\u00a0International law and treaties signed by the United States require that immigrants get the chance to make a case for asylum.\u00a0\u00a0Fleeing gang violence is a valid reason. The Trump Administration ignored that legal issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But meanwhile there\u2019s a time element. They\u2019ve been \u201cdammed up\u201d across the border, and now there is release. So many arriving \u2013 they have to be processed, and the government has to determine that they are being released to a safe environment here in the US. There are plenty willing to exploit those kids here too, from forced labor to sexual exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, the tent cities are back.\u00a0\u00a0The Department of Health and Human Services is strapped to cover the current overwhelming demand, as well as maintain COVID protocols.\u00a0\u00a0And there are even more problems than just the teenagers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There are more families crossing the border, and those families are \u201cstacking up\u201d in processing.\u00a0 FEMA is sending emergency teams to the border to help. \u00a0But it\u2019s happening for the \u201cright\u201d reason.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That doesn\u2019t make everything \u201cbetter\u201d, but it does give hope that, ultimately, the \u201cright\u201d thing will get done. Yes, more people are crossing the border, and staying in the United States. And certainly the word is out in Central America that the rules have changed once again. But the United States is \u201cback\u201d \u2013 in the words of Emma Lazarus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n