Detaining minors at our border ...

We are being flooded with minors – some as young as 10 years old – trying to cross our southern border illegally. Or, to be more accurate, trying to get caught crossing illegally.   

Some are dying before they even get here. Some are so sick when they arrive, they soon die.  Several children have died while in the custody of border authorities recently. The media and liberal politicians blame our “broken immigration system” for these deaths. They specifically blame our policies for detaining minors caught illegally crossing our border.  

I’d put the blame elsewhere.  More at the source. 

I keep asking who the hell thought it was a good idea to send their child – alone in some cases – on a journey of hundreds of miles, across dangerous terrain, exposed to dangerous human predators as well, with only the shoes on their feet, the clothes on their back, and a backpack.

I understand that some older minors, like 15-18-year-old boys, might leave on their own hoping to find jobs. But no 10-year-old or 12-year-old boy or girl gets up one morning in Guatemala or Honduras and decides on their own to take this journey without their parent’s encouragement.    

What kind of parent would do this?  And why? 

Do they care so little for the well-being of their child that they are willing to put their child’s life at risk – and for what?  The slim possibility their child will succeed against all odds and get here relatively unscathed? And once here will be taken care of?

What the hell are they thinking? Somebody must be telling them it’s an acceptable risk. That the potential rewards outweigh everything else – just get here and life will be better. 

I want to know who that is.  Who is persuading those parents it’s okay to send your own flesh and blood – especially your younger girls and boys – on a trip where their probability of getting raped, abused and possibly killed is so high? And for what? 

Border Patrol agents report that human smugglers are apparently running radio ads in Central America. The ads claim it's easy to get into the US right now.  Agents say they’ve heard this from many of the illegals they’ve encountered recently as what persuaded them to try.    

Then there are our liberal politicians, courts, and media. 

They’ve made illegally entering our country a human right, made those who want to stop or curtail it monsters, and those who protect illegals from capture and deportation folk heroes.  They’ve also sent a clear message that there’s nothing we can do to stop illegal immigration. Nor should we:  they will oppose any effort to curtail illegal immigration or deport illegals here. Even when those illegals repeatedly commit violent crimes and have been deported before many times.   

If anyone thinks the people in Latin and Central America – and criminal gangs and human smugglers from there – aren’t hearing that message loud and clear, they’re delusional.

Organized criminal operations to smuggle people across our southern border are a big and profitable business. Estimates range from $200 million to over a billion dollars a year.  Smugglers and gangs know what works and how to game the system.

So do the people they’re smuggling. Using children is part of the plan. 

Lately it’s been learned that smugglers are recycling some children as props to get various “families” across our border.  Border Patrol has reported that they’ve detained some of the same children multiple times, sometimes traveling with different “families.”  Over a few months, they’ve detained more than 3,000 bogus “families” with unrelated children in tow.  

It's obviously a scam. And it’s been going on for some time.  

Still, the question remains: what do we do with unaccompanied minors detained at our border? What do we do with children we detain who are no relation to the adult or adults they’re traveling with?  Right now we’re giving both sets of minors a pass.

If they already have relatives here, which is usually the case – is anyone surprised? – we generally send them on to those relatives to await their immigration hearing. If they don’t, we try to find them an American adult “sponsor” to stay with until their hearing.   

In the end, most asylum requests by illegals are denied.  So most of the minors as well as any families they might have traveled with should get deported back to their own countries. That is, if they and their sponsor show up for their hearing – which most won’t. 

Instead, like the hundreds of thousands of other illegals awaiting a hearing they never plan to attend, they disappear into our already burgeoning illegal community. 

They win, in other words.  That’s why their parents are sending them.  Despite the risks.    

It’s another glaring hole in our system. Once someone gets on American soil they are entitled to all sorts of support and assistance while they await a hearing on a claim for asylum – a process that can take years, during which they are released because we don’t have enough resources to detain them all. Or even keep track of them.

And during which time, as a result, the overwhelming majority will conveniently disappear and never report for their hearing. 

The easiest solution is don’t let them set foot on American soil in the first place; that way they don’t have any rights.  Build the wall and add more border patrol personnel to stop them. And don't make exceptions for minors or small children; they are participants in the ruse, not victims.  

Next, stop catch and release. If detention centers are overcrowded, don’t build more; make illegals wait somewhere else outside our country until we can process them. If they don’t like that, maybe they should have thought about the possibility of “no vacancy” before they left home.    

Finally, reform the asylum process:  require all requests for asylum be filed first in the applicant’s home country, not here. Show up here without that prior filing and your claim is dismissed.    

Hmm.  Sounds a lot like what Trump has proposed.  Maybe he’s on to something.