From Pete Candland’s website:
Statement on Housing of Undocumented Border Children in Prince William County July 15, 2014
Statement on the Housing of Undocumented Border Children in Prince William County
July 15, 2014With news breaking this past week that a facility in Prince William County is being used by the Federal Government for an extensive program to house undocumented border children, I believe that two important actions must be taken immediately to address this issue.First, the County must exhaust every regulatory tool available to stop the placement of any additional undocumented border children anywhere in Prince William County. Now that we know this extensive program exists, we need to stop growing the problem.
Second, every undocumented child who is presently housed in a Prince William County facility that receives taxpayer money must be repatriated with their families as quickly as possible. Furthermore, Prince William County and the Board of County Supervisors should take action to facilitate that process.
As I have contemplated this difficult issue over the past several days, my views have been shaped by two basic principles:
1. The Federal Government has a clear duty to secure our borders. The failure to fulfill on that obligation has put our nation at risk, and our communities and homes are less safe than they should be.
2. American taxpayers simply cannot provide financial subsidies for housing, food, clothing, education, and medical care for the countless number of impoverished families in the Western Hemisphere (or around the globe). Under current economic conditions, our nation is financially incapable of providing the financial support even for every impoverished, elderly, and disabled American. That has to be our first priority.
I believe that we are all obligated to do what is in the best interest of these children who have illegally entered the United States and who have since been taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol. It is well documented that their families are sending these children to the United States for what they believe is a life of better opportunities and increased personal safety.
I strongly believe the most humanitarian thing we can do right now, and what is ultimately in the best interest of our children, is to return these children to their families as quickly as possible. Congress must pass reform legislation quickly to fix the loophole that is being used to keep these children in the United States. This loophole has permitted the Obama Administration to implement its current immigration policy, which I believe is rooted directly in a political agenda rather than a humanitarian one.
I am personally deeply disappointed in the lack of transparency from the Federal Government to inform us that they have been using Prince William County as one of their locations to transport and house these children. This program clearly affects our citizens, and we should have been told of the extent of this program. In a meeting with Youth for Tomorrow a few weeks ago, I was informed that they had “undocumented kids” staying at the facility. At no point was I informed of the magnitude of this program or that this had been an ongoing situation for multiple years.
Youth for Tomorrow is an unsecured facility that was granted a Special Use Permit to provide services to at-risk youth in our community. It is my understanding that a majority of the bed spaces available to serve our children are currently filled with the undocumented border children, and more may be on the way. Equally important, the facility cannot guarantee that these children are not a safety risk to our families in Prince William County. That is simply unacceptable.
There are no perfect answers to these conflicts, but the choices are very clear in our obligation to secure the safety of our community and the homes of the families in Prince William County.
Youth For Tomorrow’s Director, Dr. Gary Jones, is not able to share any specific information about individual children that have been placed at YFT (which was not unexpected), however he was able to share the following general information:
Officials from Prince William County’s Planning and Public Works Departments have been investigating whether YFT is operating within the County’s zoning ordinance and the conditions of their Special Use Permit. Those conditions include requirements regarding their security planning, and a requirement that records be made available to law enforcement officials in the event that there is a criminal investigation involving a student on their campus.YFT has been very cooperative with that investigation, and our officials have not found any violations at this time. The County Executive has also spoken to Mr. Gary Hunt, who is a Policy Advisor for the Federal Health and Human Services Department /Administration for Children and Families Office of Refugee and Resettlement. Mr. Hunt was able to share the following information:– There are currently 80 children at YFT as part of this program.– The program has been in place for two years.– The children stay on average 35 days.
Thank you for being the voice of reason!
I support Candland and this statement. I consider the Federal Government’s actions in this area for the past 8-9 years to be treasonous. These recent “stealth’ efforts to hide tens of thousands of kids while Obama hems and haws and plays political football with them is abjectly disgusting.
How can anyone support indefinite detention of these kids with no clear plan on how to handle them? How can anyone support what the President is doing here? he’s hamstrung by his political base and is prolonging a self-made crisis.
Obama has already put the lie to every argument he’d been making in favor of ‘comprehensive reform” – it’s now beyond debate that our government doesn’t have our borders secure by any stretch of imagination, and more than clear that leniency with illegal immigration leads to more of the same, not less. If this were a rational argument about what to do next, it’d be pretty darned obvious and it would be done. But that’s not what this is. this is politicians recklessly playing politics.
Either send them back forthwith, or as McCain suggests put ankle monitors on them to ensure that they actually show up to immigration hearings. Period. The end.
This is exactly how this situation should be handled – http://www.theblaze.com/blog/2014/07/10/the-mccain-flake-immigration-alternative-deportations-ankle-monitors-foreign-aid-restrictions/
Not by stacking kids up indefinitely while an incompetent President does DRASTIC 180 DEGREE position changes behind closed doors, based on reactions from political bases, and has no plan forward other than to hide these kids and hope that we collectively agree to forget about them and to continue with a horrific status quo.
Obama’s absence of leadership, long in evidence, is looming gigantic here. He caused this with his policies and his politics, and now literally doesn’t know what to do. And seemingly doesn’t much care.
I sure as f*** don’t want my County to be a part of this sleaze, this irrational politics.
I remember how much grief the President got a while back when a hurricane hot New Orleans and the people in it were too dumb to drive their own buses out of the city. “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”. Compare that to the way Obama’s letting a bunch of Latino kids sit in cells with no clear path forward. Implicitly encouraging more human trafficking.
This is the death knell for immigration reform for a good while. As I stated above, it puts the lie to the whole argument that any aspect of “comprehensive reform’ can do anything good for Americans.
I think it’s going to turn Latino voters off to Obama and to democrats a bit when the dust settles and they see how these kids have been used as pawns, with no game plan to handle this ‘crisis”.
Obama’s managed to own this issue now, not in a good way. He’s reckless and he fudged this. And now his real suffering begins. Because he has generated an actual crisis, that he is incapable of dealing with.
@Rick Bentley
What on earth do you think the detention hearing is for?
You think what is going to turn Latino voters off? Leaving Hispanic children stranded in the desert? Yea, that ought to make him real popular with everyone.
He has to follow the law. The kids have to have a detention hearing. Where are they supposed to go until that can be arranged?
@Rick Bentley
I honestly don’t think you understand the process. You need to create a far more cogent path from point A to Point B if you are going to convince anyone that Obama started the crisis with his policies.
It makes far more sense to ask why drug cartels exist and who really profits from violence and mayhem. Maybe we should just legalize weed so there isn’t the need for central American marijuana. Maybe that would get rid of some of the corruption.
I simply think your cause/effect is flawed and that you didn’t read the part about temporary housing at this facility.
You didn’t even know those kids were out there until some rat bastard ran his or her mouth after receiving information.
Now he has to follow the law? Why now? Besides, he has a phone and a pen, can’t he use them to do something about this situation or was that empty rhetoric?
What in the hell are you talking about? The 2008 laws says Central American kids have to have a detention hearing. That is how it is handled. You want to cherry pick what laws are upheld, it sounds like.
It sounds like you are having a knee jerk reaction to something you don’t understand.
Sounds like Pete has not joined he anti-immigrant crowd – easy way to rile up the masses and get the vote out. Then continue to do what has been done since the last anti-immigrant election – nothing.
Where is Congress on this – where are the bills coming out of the House and Senate?
God bless YFT for the important work they do for all God’s children.
Inhale, guy, before you blow a gasket.@Rick Bentley
“The kids have to have a detention hearing. Where are they supposed to go until that can be arranged?”
A. Those hearings should be done quickly.
B. Until they are done, hold them in existing facilities. If that is not possible, release them to family but with ankle bracelets on.
Several comments…The current administration is trying to get them done quickly. That’s what the 3 billion is for, hiring additional federal judges.
Then you don’t have a problem with YFT being one of those facilities?
Here is my thought on the family…something to think about. If the child is reunited with his parents on this side of the border, do you have a problem with it? What if that parent just has other children? Those children are citizen children and therefor entitled to various food programs for the kids.
What if it is determined that a child is escaping being killed? Should we send them back to be killed?
“You need to create a far more cogent path from point A to Point B if you are going to convince anyone that Obama started the crisis with his policies.”
His policies are fairly incoherent, but generally have been about pushing the envelope to create a flashpoint. Well, here it is. Enjoy. It’s clearly a flashpoint that is counterproductive to his aims.
“It makes far more sense to ask why drug cartels exist and who really profits from violence and mayhem.”
I’ll tell you who has been profiting from the confusion around our immigration policies and lack of political will to enforce them. The Democratic party, who believes (rightly) that they’ve got the GOP in a box on this issue in terms of electoral politics, and plans to milk the issue for a generation. That’s why this is happening. Not Christian charity.
“Then you don’t have a problem with YFT being one of those facilities? ”
I don’t much like it – the kids haven’t been properly quarantined for diseases. If and when they’re released into our community, expect more Tuberculosis and scabies coming to a school near you. Do I plan to go picket YFT, no. Would I want a public facility used, no. Am I glad to hear a representative from this area stand up and object to the way these kids are being surreptitiously snuck into communities, yes.
“If the child is reunited with his parents on this side of the border, do you have a problem with it? ” Yes.
“What if that parent just has other children? Those children are citizen children and therefor entitled to various food programs for the kids.” I still have a problem w8th it. We are encouraging illegal immigration.
“What if it is determined that a child is escaping being killed? Should we send them back to be killed?”
That’s a red herring talking point – who is “killing children”? Generally the policy of allowing OTM illegal immigrants to receive special treatment has resulted in this current coyote-driven influx. It’s not good policy. I’d call it counter-productive and f*cking stupid.
There is no such policy allowing for “special treatment” of illegal migrant children. You lie! There is a law in the books signed by the prior Admin allowing for hearings. That is the law, my friend, and we need to respect it.
@Rick Bentley
YFT has been doing this for some time. Why now? The motive is pretty clear. He’s running against Corey.
The policy, Starry, is that Mexican kids are considered less important than “OTM” kids. Pretty wild when you really think about it. The Mexican kids I believe we throw straight back.
You want to respect the law? The one that says these kids are supposed to show up for hearings? Then lets put them in bracelets.
@Rick,
For a smart guy…you are off the mark. The reason that Mexican children to not have to be taken in by our government is because they can immediately be turned over to someone who is a representative of that government. We can’t turn Honduras children over to a Mexican border agent or consulate. There will always be Mexicans on the Mexican border. There are never Central American agents from any of the respective countries there.
Its all about contiguous border.
That is not a policy, Rick, that is federal law. I know you’re not a lawyer but the distinction is significant. Administrations can modify policies but laws can only be modified through the legislative process. Even Candland recognizes this and that is why he called for congress to act.
@Rick Bentley
Um….. since they are ALL coming from Mexico…..and Mexico has strict enforcement against illegal aliens from entering THEIR country…..I say that all of these people that are coming from Mexico MUST be Mexican. Because, otherwise, that would mean that our neighbor to the south is actively working to break our laws. And THAT wouldn’t happen, would it?
So send everyone back to Mexico. Let THEM sort it out.
That’s not OUR policy to do that. It doesn’t matter what Mexico does.
The law says they get a hearing. Letting them stay indefinitely by skipping the hearing, allowing that to occur large-scale to create confusion, that’s Obama’s policy.
And his 2012 policy change – not a new law – is directly responsible for this mess. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/16/us/us-to-stop-deporting-some-illegal-immigrants.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
The 2012 policy change only applies to those minors who have lived in the U S for at least five years. It does not apply to anyone who just got here.
This article is a must read! WaPo about why kids come to this country from Central America.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/07/21/i-went-to-central-america-to-find-out-why-all-those-children-are-immigrating-alone/
How does this get solved? I will tell you one way that it does not – is to do nothing with our immigration policy – that we know and have known has been exploited for over 20 years. Another way is to not do nothing with the underground economy that the influx of undocumented workers have exploded since 2004. Many are quick to blame the worker – he/she is only coming here for the jobs. What about the small business (and some large businesses) that exploit those people and illegally hire them – talk about illegal – yet, there is no penalty to them (employers) for undermining our economy.
I agree with Pat. Turning off the “jobs magnet” is the only way to mitigate illegal immigration.
Sure, kill small business in red tape to eliminate the job magnet and thus fix illegal immigration. I can’t imagine the anti-government tea partiers jumping on board that train. Surely they have a better plan than to heckle the immigrants until they self-deport.
I know Christians have a rough time in the middle east. In the west hemisphere, not so much. The only threats I have ever felt were from within, certainly not from non-Christians.
What local bloggers are going nuts over now has to do with the fact that the regular kids who come out to YFT often are emotionally disturbed. Don’t confuse the American kids with the refugee kids.
Lots of fawning going on at GL. He misses the underpinnings of what the school does with its regular students.
I am disgusted with what I read from the bloggers. Nothing has changed.
@ed myers
Sure, kill small business in red tape to eliminate the job magnet and thus fix illegal immigration. – Really? Really?? With payrolls systems of today it would take about 6 seconds to match records with E-Verify – is that really going to impact any company? Or we can continue the way we are where cash paying companies do what they want and avoid paying taxes at our expense.
@Rick Bentley
Ankle bracelets for kids that haven’t broken the law and mostly just want to escape violence or abject poverty? LISTEN to yourself, man!
What the hell are you so afraid of?
I would protest if innocent kids were shackled. Ankle bracelets are for people who have done something wrong.
The quick joke answer is “scabies”.
The real answer is, it’s not fear it’s anger at our laws being treated like a joke, and our own government promoting a culture of lawlessness.
@Cargo
Many of our students here in PWC are undocumented. I am sure you have the same situation in Henrico. How will you teach those kids who you have such disdain for?
You might not know who they are but you will know that they are there.
Lots are in Hannover because of the agriculture.
@Rick Bentley
I really don’t see a promotion of lawlessness.
“Ankle bracelets are for people who have done something wrong.” THEY DID. Obama’s policies have really created enough confusion in your mind that you don’t consider crossing the border illegally to be “wrong”?
Children, Rick. Children. Their offense is a civil offense like speeding. Do you get put in shackles for speeding?
@Rick Bentley
You can be arrested for hunting or fishing illegally but not for entering the country illegally.
Weird.
Do you get up in shackles? I believe the people I know have just been given a citation.
If you have been deported and reentered you can be charged with a felony.
So Moon, you propose that we just keep this sham going where we let people go to show up or not for hearings, and people keep streaming into the country? You’d rather not deport people?
I was watching a guy on the Colbert report (last night?) who is getting a proposal on the ballot to split California into 6 separate states, in 2016. He talked about how California used to be one of the wealthiest states in the US, and is now deeply bankrupt financially, and how schools are failing. (The wealthy guys in Silicon Valley would prefer to run a state themselves, rather than subsidize the poorer areas. Interesting episode of “Frontline” last week about how Baton Rouge is thinking of splitting into pieces. Re-segregation is raising its head as a way for people with means to improve their kids’ schools).
It seems to me that a major factor in what has happened in California in recent decades is a swelling Latino underclass, who exert political pressure towards the left. And who, rather than creating this mythical growth spurt that liberals would anticipate from an influx of poor people, have drained state resources to the point that it can’t sustain its previous welfare model.
And if illegal immigration approaches a similar level across other states, I expect more of the same.
You’re free to pretend otherwise. We can all choose what fantasy world we choose to live in. But as far as real changes occurring in the US, in my neighborhood circa 2006, I don’t like what’s happening. The social planners have abdicated their thrones. No one’s steering the bus anymore.
Nope, not planned at all:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/25/world/americas/administration-weighs-plan-to-move-processing-of-youths-seeking-entry-to-honduras-.html?_r=0
The Obama administration is considering offering Hondurans into the United States without making the dangerous trek through Mexico.
The NY Times reported:
Hoping to stem the recent surge of migrants at the Southwest border, the Obama administration is considering whether to allow hundreds of minors and young adults from Honduras into the United States without making the dangerous trek through Mexico, according to a draft of the proposal.
If approved, the plan would direct the government to screen thousands of children and youths in Honduras to see if they can enter the United States as refugees or on emergency humanitarian grounds. It would be the first American refugee effort in a nation reachable by land to the United States, the White House said, putting the violence in Honduras on the level of humanitarian emergencies in Haiti and Vietnam, where such programs have been conducted in the past amid war and major crises.
Critics of the plan were quick to pounce, saying it appeared to redefine the legal definition of a refugee and would only increase the flow of migration to the United States. Administration officials said they believed the plan could be enacted through executive action, without congressional approval, as long as it did not increase the total number of refugees coming into the country.
Did you howl this much over the boat people and the refugees from Haiti? How about the Cubans that were flown over here by Lyndon Johnson?
Planned? To what purpose if not humanitarian? I fail to see how it would help Obama.
More irresponsibility. The one good thing about it is that by these politcally-driven executive orders, which are so irresponsible and which so clearly correlate to an increased flow of illegal immigrants, Obama is increasingly “owning” the problem, and making it more of a left-vs-right thing. Don’t hold your breath for that “comprehensive reform” package any time soon. The political climate makes it a non-starter for the forseeable future.
And all that proponents of illegal immigration can do are counter-productive things such as Obama has been doing, that point out the logical fallacies in all their arguments.
Eventually a terrorist will walk across our border and poison our food supply, or an illegal immigrant will commit the type of horrible crime that our media outlets like to dwell on. And then the reactionary politics will begin.
Rick, I hate to keep picking on you, but I just have to introduce some facts regarding California which pretty much undermine your assertions in your post #42.
1. California has a multi-billion dollar budget surplus and has made a remarkable comeback from the recession.
2. They are adding jobs faster than the national average.
3. There ARE longer-term problems with their budget, but the chief driver for the spending is pension liabilities and bond costs, not welfare.
I’d like to see concrete evidence of a “swelling Latino underclass” in California or elsewhere in the U.S. Xenophobia by any other name still smells as fowl.
No one wants an overwhelming amount of any group of people to overpopulate our country, but we don’t really have a reasonable legal method of immigration and until we do, people will continue to enter “illegally.”
I would think it would be MUCH more likely for a terrorist to come across the Canadian border. Why don’t we put up a fence up there?
“I’d like to see concrete evidence of a “swelling Latino underclass” in California ”
Really? After that would you like to see evidence that the sky is blue?
http://news.yahoo.com/nations-breadbasket-latinos-stuck-poverty-120309988.html
The thought occurs to me that if we lifted some of the bricks off young people’s heads this situation might improve. Pass the dream act.
There will always be have’s and have nots, in all races. However, the one we have placed on young Hispanics who have been brought up here is truly artificial.
President of Honduras says that Obama’s lack of clarity (referred to elsewhere in interview as ‘electoral politics”) enables coyotes – http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/07/honduras-president-hernandez-interview-109400.html#.U9OsK_kVrl6
“The problem is that that ambiguity, that lack of clarity, is used by coyotes [traffickers] to perversely deceive the families that are here, telling them that they can bring their kids and that their entry can be resolved legally later.”
Rick, your reference to a “swelling Latino underclass” was in relation to welfare and your ongoing rant on immigration. The Latino’s referenced in the article are working and contributing in various jobs including manufacturing, construction and agriculture. If some need welfare, whose fault is that? Could it be the employers that are taking advantage of them and not paying a living wage, as the article states? Like Walmart? Shouldn’t your ire be directed to those who are taking advantage of them and costing the rest of us more in taxes to take up the slack? Should the U.S. taxpayer continue to subsidize big agra and big manufacturers and Walmart?
Do we continue to demean and degrade the hard-working Latino’s who do our hardest jobs for a pittance, or do we lean on these corporations to pay a decent wage and get them off the taxpayer’s back?
“Could it be the employers that are taking advantage of them and not paying a living wage, as the article states? ”
And you’re enabling that.
“Shouldn’t your ire be directed to those who are taking advantage of them and costing the rest of us more in taxes to take up the slack?”
To some degree. But I’m not really mad at employers for wanting to maximize profit. or immigrants for trying to better themselves. I’m mad at our so-called political “leaders” who defecating in our mouths and telling us all to enjoy the sundae.
“Do we continue to demean and degrade the hard-working Latino’s who do our hardest jobs for a pittance”
I don’t demean them.
I pay Latinos the going rate. Am I cheating myself?
A reminder. This thread is about the children. I think the children are another issue altogether.
Uh-huh. So let me ask you this. Let’s say a woman across the street from you sends her daughter to your house. She thinks you can take better care of her, so she tells her to go live with you. Do you take her in and care for her? Or call the proper authorities?
Now pretend that 10 times over, you took a child in and then another one shows up at the door soon after. Today you opened the door and there were dozens of kids. Do you take them in? Or at some point does a light bulb go off in your head.
They will end up being sent back at least for now. I might call the authorities because of our social order. I don’t think the analogy is comparable.
Rick, you’ve lost me. No idea what your “enabling” comment means.
The problem you’re concerned about- “draining state resources”- is being caused by working people not being paid enough to live without state help, but you’re not “mad” at the folks responsible. Sounds illogical to me. The current influx of youngsters is already slowing, and many are being sent back, but if we do nothing to address the underlying problems the “underclass” will continue to grow.
If you ask me, middleman, we’re long past the point that we don’t really need most people to work 40 hours a week, but our economic model is based around that idea that they ideally should. Adding 10-20 million uneducated poor is going to move us further towards class seperatism and wage disparity. As it has been doing.
The welfare system we have lived under is breaking. More uneducated poor will break it further.
If we did not have 10 million illegal immigrants here working – if they were e-verified away from employment – we would have had slower economic growth, higher wages, and less unemployment. The gap between rich and poor would be less.
And my “enabling” comment – if you encourage illegal immigration rather than discourage it (there is no middle ground), you’re helping to lower wages and working conditions in the US. Don’t delude yourself otherwise. Wages and working conditions have to do with supply and demand in the labor market.
Who9 do you think is going to do all the low wage work, just out of curiosity? Stoop work, agriculture, chicken processing, fish industry processing, low skill manufacturing? Poor people. They need to earn a living wage also.
I think you are too immersed in Northern Virginia and really don’t have much concept of what the rest of the state looks like.
If poor people need to earn a living wage, what do you think the effect is of letting 10-20 million more of them in to work here?
A glut of unskilled labor, and lower wages for working poor. Increasing class disparity. A need to give federal tax money to working poor just to enable them to get by, to eat and feed children and maintain a car. And no solution in sight.
This isn’t something theoretical. It’s been happening all around us. If we had 20 million less poor people in this country, wages would be higher for working poor and lower middle class, we’d all pay a little bit more for our Big Mac (or salad), and working poor would have less of a struggle. And more opportunity. It’s the America that Democrats say they want to build, to move towards. But their actions help to build the opposite.
If you want to let illegal immigrants work here, fine. But please don’t pretend that it doesn’t affect wages. Please don’t pretend that it’s good for lower class Americans. It does and it’s part and parcel of the continued class segregation and dependence on federal subsidies that’s been happening during the past decade.
I am not sure where you think all these working class poor folks are. Are they working? Remember that illegal immigrants aren’t eligible for welfare and food stamps.
It seems to me that if you favor Amnesty (yeah, I said it) or continued illegal immigration, that you’re saying well, okay, let’s keep creating an America where poor people have no leverage and depend on Federal subsidies to get by. Let’s devalue work, as long as our big macs and salads are cheaper, and the stock market keeps going up.
It’s a direction I don’t like. What moves me to rage is that it’s happening not because our elites were able to fool us into validating it, but because they get away with continually redefining semantics and obfuscating the issue and misinforming people. And not upholding the laws they swore to uphold.
I do not favor illegal immigration. I favor fair immigration where people can immigrate legally. I also favor people who have immigrated illegally being allowed to change their status. Notice I did not mention citizenship. If the people were 18 or older when they immigrated illegally, ineligible for citizenship for 20 years. If kids immigrated before 18 then citizenship would be allowed in 7 years. If kids have been here through all 12 years of school including graduation, then citizenship eligibility would be immediate.
That should cut out all fear of building voting blocks.
“I also favor people who have immigrated illegally being allowed to change their status. Notice I did not mention citizenship.”
I like the idea of a guest worker program. But not the idea of rewarding line-cutters with a path to citizenship ahead of people who didn’t sneak in. This is a political non-starter because it’s considered a “Republican” solution … it helps take the issue off the table without potential to add millions of non-white voters into the mix.
“If kids immigrated before 18 then citizenship would be allowed in 7 years. ”
I could go along with that too, if they can’t sponsor their parents.
Rick, it’s all a question of which came first, the chicken or the egg. Did the low wage jobs come first, or did the migrant workers come first? Which one is the driver of low wages and a poor underclass?
I think it’s pretty clear that low wage jobs have been with us since there were wages. Workers have always been exploited, no matter where they came from- Africa as slaves, Ireland, China, etc., and whether or not they came here illegally. The low wages cause the existence of the poor underclass, the poor underclass doesn’t drive the existence of low wages. That distinction is important and negates your argument.
Of course, all this talk of wages is immaterial to the current border situation. The children coming now are fleeing their countries to avoid death or slavery (sexual or drug). We should be welcoming them as the refugees they are, if they can show that is the case.