ILLEGAL CHILDREN AT THE GATE

You are so lucky if you don't watch cable news.  The children coming across the border have been going on for a couple of years, but, because the president went to Texas, the news media is all over it and trying to get him to visit the border.  He does go to visit sites of natural disasters that involve American citizens, but these children are not American citizens.  Does that make a difference?  I'm inclined to think it does.

But on the one hand, Hispanics would like to have the president visit, even though I don't know what he would do there.  Somehow it might give emotional support to the Hispanic community.  But I see a lot of "political landmines" in going there.  At any rate, he didn't do it.

But what to do?  "However, under a 2008 law meant to combat child trafficking, the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, children from Central America must be given a court hearing before they are deported (or allowed to stay). Given the huge backlog of cases, they may have to wait years for a hearing."  (http://www.npr.org/2014/07/09/329848538/whats-causing-the-latest-immigration-crisis-a-brief-explainer) This law was passed with a large bipartisan majority.

Many children from El Salvador and Honduras come from violent regions and therefore are refugees.  I would think they would be allowed to stay if they have families to take them.  Many of those from Guatemala and El Salvador are said to be coming for economic reasons, and I suppose they will be deported.

But our immigration code is arbitrary.  Any Cuban that can walk onto our shore is considered a refugee and allowed to stay although, if caught at sea, they are returned to Cuba.  There is no such thing as an illegal Cuban immigrant!  But we are trying to overthrow a political regime there.  We may not be happy with the regimes in the Central American states, but we don't seem to want to do things to overthrow them.

Well, that is as far as I have gotten on this issue.  Though Republicans don't like all this illegal immigration (child or adults), they don't seem to be able to roust themselves to do something about it.  They just criticize the President for not following the law, but, when he does follow the law, he gets it just the same.