From Eric Byler:
This was one of the most disturbing nights of filming I have experienced in America since Oct. 16, 2007. The next day I was interviewed on MSNBC to report on what I had witnessed.
Prior to that, I wrote this in an email to Annabel Park and Police Chief Charlie Deane (ret.) of Prince William County, VA:
I filmed the entire town hall event last night. I met the Sheriff and gave him two copies of the film. I also gave a copy of the film to the Mayor-elect and a county supervisor. The story in Lawrenceville is a lot more complex than “look how racist people can be” and also more complex than “country folk just hate the federal government” although I saw a lot of that too.
It seems that the administrator of the now-defunct college down there signed an agreement with the federal government to house these unaccompanied minors on the campus, without informing the local elected officials or the People. They have a right to be upset about the lack of transparency. I only counted 2 people who stood up to defend the idea of helping these young people in 3 and 1/2 hours (but I did step out for a while with 1 camera rolling).
There are programs like this all over the country with no incidents of immigrant minors escaping and going on crime sprees. Other concerns included the notion that they might not actually be minors but instead could be 26-year-old gang members. Also, the volunteer fire chief said that the college’s buildings were not up to fire standards, and that people from South and Central America are likely to carry diseases, and he was concerned that his fire fighters could either die fighting a fire in a building that is not up to code, or catch and spread diseases in the process (!?).
Many things were said that made me cringe. Put them in the closed-down jail instead of the closed-down college campus for instance. And in general comments were expressed with a show-boating style of hatred that was cheered on by hundreds in the audience. I think under these circumstances, people could be found to come out and behave like this in most parts of the country.
I told the Sheriff and the County Supervisor that the danger here was that someone or some organization would swoop in with a policy or a campaign that would exploit the fears and the emotions that this controversy has stirred up.
When I first read what Eric had said, I thought Ha! worse than October 16, 2007—the night of the marathon BOCS meeting? (The meeting lasted about 13 hours with hundreds of speakers.) After watching the above footage, I think Lawrenceville is worse. I can remember sitting in my living room with my daughter, tears rolling down our face on October 16, 2007. Some of the speakers were heartbreaking, here in Prince William County. In Lawrenceville, you didn’t hear from the immigrants. You heard from the people of the town. Yes, Eric, I think June 20, 2014 might just have been a little worse.
These are children these people are talking about. What is wrong with these people? Do we put children in prison? Forget immigration for a moment. Forget status, legal or illegal. Just from a humanitarian point of view, some of these people are simply beyond the pale.
Give me Prince William County where people get upset if they hear Spanish being spoken. Give me PWC where people’s mother’s are afraid to take the garbage out because they hear someone speaking NOT-English or ladies who boycott Lowes because there are signs in Spanish. The stuff heard in this film is like the Night of the Undead.
Many and sharp the num’rous ills
Inwoven with our frame!
More pointed still we make ourselves
Regret, remorse, and shame!
And man, whose heav’n-erected face
The smiles of love adorn, –
Man’s inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn! – Robert Burns
That first resident who spoke about our citizenship being worth nothing was very articulate.
The next guy’s point about diseases is a true point. Illegal immigration does undercut the constructs we’ve set up for disease control.
The woman mentioning gang members … again, an inarguably true fact. Juvenile gang members are walking over the border right now. It undercuts our anti-gang efforts.
IMO a prison IS more appropriate than a college. I am sure that the majority of Americans would agree. Particularly if they’re going to get deported. Which Obama is claiming, on and off, that they will be.
I see this as more inspiring than disturbing. These people are standing up against their government’s refusal to follow the law of this land. They are fairly articulate about it, and restrained in their rhetoric.
Well, I obviously don’t agree. I have seen no indication of immigrants spreading disease. If that was the case I would be effen dead. Think about it.
Yes, gang members come across the border. However, I don’t think that is the issue here. Gang members have different motives.
These are little children, for heavens sake.
Yeah, they’re children, and they’re here because the President of the US encouraged them – intentionally or unintentionally. Should they be deported, or not? Knowing that if they stay, it encourages the next wave.
I simply do not think it is true. Why one earth would the President encourage them. I am calling bullshit on that one.
KRGV.com: US Dept. of Health and Human Services has confirmed that one of the unaccompanied immigrant children has been diagnosed with H1N1 (Swine) flu. They are rushing 2000 vaccination units to the holding center at Lackland AFB near San Antonio. Total of arrivals in the US thus far: about 50,000. With no letup.
You might find the same thing at the airport on any given day. We don’t check for disease at customs.
No one is saying that this is a good thing. I think we are saying, at least I am saying, that we need to treat the situation in a humane way. We don’t jail children.
Moon, this is the entirely logical outcome of the President’s executive action to stop deporting those who came here as children, in 2012.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-will-stop-deporting-some-illegal-immigrants-who-came-here-as-children/2012/06/15/gJQANBbseV_story.html
“President Obama said Friday his administration would stop deporting some illegal immigrants who were brought to the country as children and have gone on to be productive and otherwise law-abiding residents, forcing the emotional immigration policy debate into the forefront of the presidential campaign.
Obama described his decision as the “right thing to do for the American people,” but many Democrats and immigration advocates also saw it as the right strategic move to boost his reelection chances.”
I saw it as a logical outcome of something that has gone unchecked for decades.
I will always support the Dream Act. To do otherwise is a waste of natural talent and our own resources.
So there are something like 47,000 kids in custody right now? We’re feeding them – I heard we have learned they prefer corn tortillas in their breakfast burritos – and holding them indefinitely? Because I suppose Obama would prefer not to deport them? He went on Good Morning America today and claimed that kids who come illegally “will be sent back” – but doesn’t actually want to do it? He thinks these kids are part and parcel of some plan to pressure Congress?
I heard the First Lady of Honduras is coming to tour a facility? She should come with buses and take the kids back.
This whole thing makes me MAD AS HELL and reminds me of why I didn’t vote in 2012.
Not voting is abdication.
You can’t treat unattended children like adults. That’s the bottom line.
What do you mean “treat them like adults” – you mean, we can’t deport them?
Not voting is the responsible position IMO. I’m waiting for a candidate worth a spit.
Conservatives caused this problem by spreading false rumors that Obama is going to offer amnesty to all children who came here illegally.
Is that right? And just what is Obama’s position on the matter?
Looks like we’re actually going to start deporting women and children – http://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/06/27/officials-nm-detention-center-will-be-focused-on-deporting-illegal-immigrants-within-15-days/
So, in other words, Obama’s policy didn’t work and he’s doing a 180 on it. And we’re going to deport people, to send a message to their home countries.
He never said he wanted women and children to show up at our borders. Too many right wing rags…
If you listen carefully, you can hear …the sound of Obama blinking.
What exactly would you suggest we do with all these kids?
I don’t have a suggestion. I would get them out of what amounts to a refuge camp though.
I would try to determine 1. Who are their parents 2. Where are their parents 3. Do they have relatives living in the United States?
Once I found that out, I would come down real hard on the embassies to get their parents to come get their children. If they didn’t come for them, I would ask those who have enough free time to “counsel” at clinics to foster the children with the possibility of adoption. After all, these children are alive and full of LIFE.
So in other words Moon, you would encourage hundreds of thousands more to come. Great plan.
College isn’t why those kids are here as refuges. That is pure BS.
Let me keep trying to get reality to converge with good will and sentiment here …
If we are actually going to deport these kids back … as Obama seemed to reluctantly be saying in the past two days … as a DHS official told reporters off-the-record yesterday …
Should they be housed in a college? or a prison?
Its a closed college with dorm space. College, of course. Does it give you thrills and chills to think of children behind bars?
Unfortunately, I believe the college offer is not going to happen. Maybe there are some closed military bases.
It seems to be a given that we are going to deport the most recent wave of children – http://blogs.rollcall.com/white-house/immigrant-children-deport-obama/?dcz=
The only question is how to do it safely. And as usual, Obama has no clue yet on how to accomplish this, despite it being an entirely logical outcome of his policies. So meanwhile the kids sit indefinitely in holding facilities, crammed in 5 times more densely than the cells wee planned to hold.
Those of you who want to pretend that the “right wing” is to blame … have lost all contact with what’s real. THIS IS THE ENTIRELY LOGICAL OUTCOME OF NOT DEPORTING CHILDREN DURING THE PREVIOUS COUPLE OF YEARS.
I don’t believe I have blamed anyone.
Your cause and effect are slightly off Rick.
To hear you talk, you want to take young adults who have lived here most of their lives, have been educated in American schools, and send them to some country where they might not even speak the language.
I want to allow them to go to college or serve in the military.
He’s actually managed to create a home-made humanitarian crisis. He’s a complete dumb f*** of a President some times. I say this not as a right-winger eager to bash him. I say it as an objective observer. Good god what an imbecile.
Rick, you are far from an objective observer on this topic. I see no difference in you and Tom Tancredo on the subject of immigration.
If tens of hundreds of unaccompanied minors coming here were a good thing rather than a bad thing, we would presumably encourage it. Make it legal. Expand our legal immigration system to the quota we let in now, plus as many unaccompanied minors as can cross over. And run bus lines, take the business away from the coyotes.
But it’s not a good thing. It’s not a good thing at all. It’s a side effect of a reckless and ill-considered policy. Stop trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear here. This is reckless government with no up side to it.
“I see no difference in you and Tom Tancredo on the subject of immigration.”
Well, as far as Obama goes, I don’t generally wish for him to fail. I don’t wish for him to make irresponsible dumb decisions. I’m on his side the majority of the time. But on this issue, he’s flat-out refusing to enforce our laws. (As did Bush).
As far as housing them in a college, sounds like the preface for Dream Act part 2. Walk across the border and go to college. Maybe the detainees could get some type of credit hours for the time they are putting in between now and enrollment?
Are you even sure you know what the law says? I think that is one reason that we need immigration reform. The laws and policies are a patchwork of mish mash.
Of course, we’ll need to populate the college with instructors who speak Spanish. And, make sure that the college meals use corn tortilla – not flour. It’s important that these kids be rewarded by us for the suffering they undertook to make a joke out of our soverignty and to break the rules of our land. Welcome to America, congratulations on figuring out that rules don’t matter and that we’re too soft and lazy to enforce them. Here’s your breakfast burrito, corn tortilla.
I believe the dorms an dining hall were supposed to be used.
People don’t get instruction in Spanish now. Why should those kids. I imagine they would go to regular school if they were there that long. Now that presents a problem because of numbers, especially in a rural area.
“The laws and policies are a patchwork of mish mash.”
Ah, well let’s just ignore them then. Until the great Comprehensive Reform boondoggle of 2029 comes around. Step up, come one, come all.
The main truth about life that conservatives live in denial of is that supply-side economics doesn’t build better societies by any reasonable person’s measure. There’s plenty of evidence that concentrating wealth has negative side effects – the history of America, to start with – but they refuse to acknowledge it.
And the main truth that liberals refuse to acknowledge is – when you subsidize or reward something, you’re going to end up with more of it. Create incentive for poor people to be rewarded for earning less income, you’re going to have an increase in poor people who won’t work. Give suffiecent tax breaks and assistance for poor people having a lot of children. Reward families with welfare only if they are not a two-parent family, you’re going to increase the amount of broken families in low income brackets. And reward people for walking across the border and engaging in identity fraud, expect more of it.
Now you sound like Margaret Sangor. (the real version, not the right to life version I have heard about here.)
or, as was said more concisely long ago, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Funny too how this affair puts the lie to the claim that we had secured our border in any real way, and that we could therefore begin serious talks about “Comprehensive Immigration Reform”. Apparently not.
“We strengthened security at the borders so that we could finally stem the tide of illegal immigrants. We put more boots on the ground on the southern border than at any time
in our history. And today, illegal crossings are down nearly 80 percent from their peak in 2000.”
President Obama, January 29, 2013
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/immigration/border-security)
Current statement on White House web site : “Children brought here illegally through no fault of their own by their parent will be eligible for earned citizenship.” (No qualifier on web page about any limitation on this).
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/immigration/earned-citizenship
I guess Republicans forced him to say that? Or maybe the GOP hacked into the whitehouse web page and altered it?
Earlier this week, CBS/DallasFortWorth quoted Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) on the immigration emergency. Cuellar said that he has talked to the Border Patrol at McAllen, Texas. “They’ve seen TB; they’ve seen chicken pox; they’ve see scabies. According to the Border Patrol, 4 or 5 of their agents have tested positive for these diseases.”
Since when are the border patrol agents all medical doctors? So far the diseases you have named can be seen in classrooms across America. Again, no one is saying that the border crisis is a good thing. It has to be dealt with. It isn’t acceptable. But we don’t put children in prison.
Blaming the administration is just a pile on.
And the children coming across have HIV running at a rate of about 0.5% right now. Which is thought to be mostly acquired by rape, during the journey.
Are you sure about that? I wasn’t aware that HIV showed up that fast. Are we now testing for HIV at the border? That must be costing this country a fortune.
By all means we should throw children who have been raped into prison, if that is the case.
Why are you all doing this? What is your point and what real solutions do you have for this refuge crisis?
No, you are incorrect.Here is what the White House statement says:
“Earned citizenship for DREAMers.
Children brought here illegally through no fault of their own by their parent will be eligible for earned citizenship. By going to college or serving honorably in the Armed Forces for at least two years, these children should be given an expedited opportunity to earn their citizenship. The President’s proposal brings these undocumented immigrants out of the shadows.”
Only those who go to college or serve in the Armed Firces are eligible.
Like I said, conservatives are spreading false rumors that Obama is offering amnesty to all kids wh arrive. That is a lie. Conservatives have created this problem by their lies.
Thanks for the clarification, Starry.
Yes, thanks for the clarification. What I meant to say was that no qualifier was on the web site relating to the date they enter.
Which is not something that we could ever verify anyway.
And we could hardly verify whether they’re enrolled in college, much less meaningfully. It just means a lot of kids will enroll in some community college somewhere without necessarily even progressing towards any degree, and possibly using federal Assistance. The whole thing’s extremely ill-considered.
Does anyone think that we’ll someday be deporting some young person because they got a D instead of an F in a particular class, or because their school loan money went out? hardly. This is a law that’s unenforceable; it’s the illusion of a law, not a real law that anyone could take seriously.
Is easy to tighten up requirements about being enrolled in college. On the other hand, why should someone have to get a degree? How about computer certification?
why do you want to take USA educated students who made good grades and ship them out?
How about shipping out all the toadies who continually made bad grades and plan to live on the dole forever? I don’t even care what their race is.
Someone has to be a worker bee to support the social security system if nothing else. It only makes sense to have American students (and yes, I do consider those kids to be American students) filling American jobs and contributing towards American success.
Here’s a link to the HIV story – http://www.krgv.com/news/few-young-illegal-immigrants-tested-for-hiv
Well, I am half wrong. Some kids are getting tested. There isn’t time to test those being sent right back.
That’s horrible sad to think someone would violate a kid like that. Pigs@
“What is your point” – same one I’ve been yapping about for 7 years now. That we need to reward legal immigration and provide disincentive for illegal immigration. That illegal immigration hurts our most vulnerable citizens and increases class disparity in America, in a permanent way.
“and what real solutions do you have for this refuge crisis?” There are two choices. Take them in, and increase the flow coming in and create bigger problems. Or send them back, which is the logical thing to do.
You are aware that those who are here illegally would be legal if they had their choice in the matter?
Again, I am not saying it is a good thing. I am saying it is the human condition. If you thought your kids would have a better life, would you come to this country illegally if you thought you wouldn’t get caught? (or hoped you wouldn’t?)
And according to what I read here, the Obama Administration is setting up the machinery to deport these people more efficiently. Good. All it took was a self-generated humanitarian crisis to show him the error of his ways. http://jurist.org/paperchase/2014/06/white-house-to-increase-deportation-of-illegal-children.php
“The Obama administration [official website] on Friday announced [press release] that it would boost the ranks of immigration judges, lawyers and asylum officers to decrease the flow of undocumented children into the country.
…
By increasing the capacity to detain individuals and adults with children, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [official website] will be able to return unlawful migrants from Central America in a quicker fashion. Officials also announced $9.6 million in additional support to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to help receive and reintegrate people who are sent back.”
So, even Barack Obama has come around to my point of view. He can see that the reality he was working to build is a catastrophe.
No one here was advocating that we let a whole bunch of parentless children into the United States. Some of us were advocating humane solutions. Others of us, like me, were simply putting up posts about the crisis with particular emphasis on the Byler video footage of Lawrenceville.
I am not sure of the logistics of sending people back. How do we know who these niños belong to?
Looks like a tipping point on the issue to me.
The tipping point for Amnesty was 2007. If Congress couldn’t ram it through with a Republican President supporting it and strong-arming Republicans, they never will.
I think this latest fiasco will be the tipping point for Democrats … the point where they start to realize that, yeah, this whole story we’ve constructed about how we supposedly have secure borders and are in position for a “Comprehensive” solution is … not real. We’re no going to be able to get our arms around this issue to the point of fine-tuning some type of “Comprehensive” solution.
Comprehension meaning fixing the whole thing rather than putting bandaids on the Frankenstein monster.
“Is easy to tighten up requirements about being enrolled in college. On the other hand, why should someone have to get a degree? How about computer certification?”
So you want people coming in who are going to be skilled labor. Ah. Well then I have a more direct way that we can acheive that, without trying to calibrate what level of adult education should or shouldn’t remove threat orf deportation …
ONLY LET LEGAL IMMIGRANTS STAY, AND ONLY LET LEGAL IMMIGRANTS WORK. Control the flow of people; don;t leave it up to the fates and hope for the best.
“Someone has to be a worker bee to support the social security system if nothing else.”
Yeah. I nominate the 10% of America that’s unemployed.
“You are aware that those who are here illegally would be legal if they had their choice in the matter?”
Are you aware that polls a few years ago showed nearly half the young people in South and Central American countries were considering coming here illegally? A lot of people want to be here legally. And we should let some of them in. LEGALLY, IN CONTROLLED FASHION. Rewarding lawbreaking is generally a bad thing … and leads to more lawbreaking, not less.
I don’t disagree with most of that.
“If you thought your kids would have a better life, would you come to this country illegally if you thought you wouldn’t get caught? (or hoped you wouldn’t?)”
Probably. So any country that doesn’t want an influx of illegal immigrants needs to deport illegal immigrants, not roll out welcome mats for them.
“I am not sure of the logistics of sending people back. How do we know who these niños belong to?”
I guess over the coming weeks and months we’ll see how they do it. We’re allocating millions of dollars to help. They’ll set up shelters in their home countries and process them there.
“Comprehension meaning fixing the whole thing rather than putting bandaids on the Frankenstein monster.”
This who crazy semantic construct of “needing a comprehensive solution” makes me mad.
Step 1A, we need a government that respects law and plays by the rules. That is the thing that makes me angriest in this whole issue/debate. The rich do what they want. They want illegal immigration, and have through their proxies defined this debate in a way that works around the best interests of most Americans.
If we had a government we could trust, we could reform legal immigration to suit our needs and wants and even our idea of charity. Failing that, there’s no way forward that’s not chaos.
Nothing good will ever come of this issue until we the people insist that our government respect our laws and will. Bottom line. The idea that two Presidents in a row willfully choose to ignore their obligations to uphold our laws should be beyond unsettling to us.
specifically which laws did Bush and Obama not uphold? From my end, I see a lot of people living in the shadows.
Further proof that the tide is changing on this issue, rather dramatically – Obama is asking Congress for 2 Billion more dollars basically to create more infrastructure to deport people – http://online.wsj.com/articles/obama-seeks-2-billion-to-address-surge-in-illegal-border-crossings-1404022834
A few weeks ago he would deride this approach as “inhumane”, but it’s about to be the order of the day.
CDCP will tell you that the incidence of TB among the foreign-born in this country is far above that of U.S.-born people. And we are now being overwhelmed on the southern border with a limited capacity to make the necessary medical checks. (In fact, with that porous border we have never been able to make those checks.) That our border guards are catching things is not to be sniffed at. TB will surely be followed by the drug-resistant variety — MDR TB. I caught the standard variety in Vietnam and was cured by the drugs — but they wouldn’t let me leave that hospital for eight months, just to make sure.
@Rick Bentley
“some times.”
SOME times?