The Problem Starts a Long Way from Our Border
"Unfortunately, it looks like we're on track to do absolutely nothing" -- Sen. John Cornyn, R-Tex., on Congress and children at the border.
Want to do something for or about those kids at the border? Go to Mama Carmen's Espresso Cafe in Fayetteville and buy coffee.
I don't give trite, feel-good answers. I'm serious. I make my living by being a cynic. One person buying coffee there will do more good than 1,000 Texas National Guard troops or 535 members of Congress. Mama Carmen's also serves great coffee. I found that out while attending to no higher purpose than my own pleasure. The cafe's on College Avenue. It's in the same mini-mall as American Tire, just south of Fiesta Square. How ironic.
Mama Carmen's is one of those well-intentioned little enterprises with the goal of helping give a decent life to some people who need it in Latin America,
Baylor Track & Field- Holmes Places Third At World Junior Championships. A decent life for more people who need it in Latin America is just what the doctor ordered here. That lack of a decent life is what those kids are fleeing.
There are probably other little enterprises with the same goal all over the region. Mama Carmen's is just the one I found without really looking. Look a little. No telling what you'll find.
But those kids showing up on our border are in a humanitarian crisis, liberals will say. We need immediate action. We expect 90,000 kids this year. Another 150,000 will arrive in 2015.
Pardon my coldness, but do you think these kids were the first? Do you think they're going to be the last? The U.S. government first noted a surge in children showing up at the border in October, 2011. Our region's office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees finished a report on this crisis in March, for crying out loud.
Where's our concern while these kids trek their way through a continent? What are we doing to stop them from having to make deals with criminals to get across the border? How many of these kids died, were raped or both before they got here? How many will?
Now let's look at this from the other direction. Suppose you blame all this on soft enforcement of U.S. immigration law. Then please explain why Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Belize combined saw a 432 percent increase in applications for asylum since 2009, according to the same U.N. report.
Argue that America is for Americans. OK. The problems of people in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala are problems for their governments, in principle. I'll buy that. Now, by the same logic, the problem of paralysis in the U.S. government is our problem. See the quote at the top of this column.
We're not going to build a Soviet-style Iron Curtain along the southern border, or some kinder, gentler version of it with sensors and drones. If you support that, tough. You don't have the votes in Congress even if you had the money. Time's on the side of your opponents. All they need is patience. They appear to have it.
Here's the bottom line with these kids: We can't solve our problem without at least looking at theirs,
Vertrag bis 2016- Sandhausen .
Years ago, illegal immigration from Mexico by adult workers made all the headlines. I wrote then that there'd be no problem if people could make a decent living in Mexico. That was the answer for everyone. Guess what? The U.S. economy fell flat in 2008 and the Mexican economy, relatively speaking, improved a bit. The influx of adult workers from Mexico dropped sharply. For a brief time, according to the best statistics available, more people went south than north.
Most people don't want to leave home. They'll stay if they can, usually. And if things get better, many go back. That's certainly true of Arkansas. Guess what? It's true of just about everywhere and everyone else.
Benjamin Franklin's still right. As others said before him, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Stop thinking about the kids coming this way as an immigration issue. Start thinking of it as a child protection issue. Ask yourself what would make you so desperate,
Our Lives- Beach vacation mem, you'd send your child alone to a foreign country. Then go find out what makes other people do that. Some of these kids aren't leaving their parents, for instance, but joining them. Dad had to come here to make a living, and mom's too hard to smuggle.
And while you're thinking of something that would really help,
True Religion Outlet Camarillo, go have some coffee. Sit down and talk to someone who's having coffee too, maybe someone who disagrees with you completely on immigration. If we do that, things will get better.
Commentary on 07/27/2014
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