Sonia Nazario has been to Central America and has ridden The Beast for 3 months. She was there 10 years ago and she has gone back more recently. She followed one young chap named Enrique in order to write her book, Enrique’s Journey. Enrique’s Journey is about a young boy who made a journey across several countries to reunite with his mother who had left him when he was 5. Nazario tells us that 10 years ago, poverty and the desire to reunite with family drove children to come to the United States. Now she says things have changed. Enrique’s Journey is not a newly released documentary.
She insists that the refugee children escaping Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador should be treated as refugees rather than immigrants. Why? Nazario returned to Honduras and was dumbstruck by the changes in the level of violence in the old neighborhoods. Gangs and narco-cartels have taken over and threaten children into drug use and joining gangs. Children leave to escape a world they have seen all too often become a one-way ticket to violent death.
No one escapes. Nazario believes that borders should be secure and opposes illegal immigration. She feels this situation with the children is totally outside the realm of illegal immigration and that the children should be protected and have real asylum hearings rather than just being shuffled through kangaroo hearings that meet the bare minimum required by law.
This interview is a must see. Sonia Nazario has been there and she just might open your eyes to some information you might have thought to be impossible. She just might know a little more than your ideology (either side) wants to accept.
Further reading by Sonia Nazario.
“She insists that the refugee children escaping Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador should be treated as refugees rather than immigrants.”
Okay, then what do we do with them once they are here? There are other countries around the world that have had an increase in violence, should we treat all of them as refugees as well?
Did you even watch the video?
Perhaps our money is better spent in our own hemisphere.
I have now watched the video twice and at no point is the issue of what to do with them once they are here discussed. Am I missing something?
They talked about the need to take in all of these kids but then what? What do you do with 30k, 40k, 50k kids here on their own?
Good question and one that we should be discussing. Is it even possible? Are here 50k couples who want a child? Is it better to go back and clean house in Honduras and El Salvador? Now we aren’t pouring money into Iraq, would it be possible?
Can closed military bases be used? Kids know their parents names and probably where they are. Do all have parents?
I don’t think you send children back to die. Period.
That’s find Moon, re: don’t send children back t die. However, don’t you think it’s a bit shortsighted? Taken in all these kids an then what?
It might make people feel good about themselves saying we should take them all in but I have yet to hear one of those same people discuss what to do next. House them on closed military bases? For how long? Do we send them to schools surrounding these bases? Can those schools take in a few thousand more students (that don’t speak English and in most cases can’t even write in Spanish)?
Okay, so take money we were pouring into Iraq and pour it into this problem? What do we spend the money on and how much do we need?
Also Ms. Nazario stated that the main reason for them is because of pressure these kids face from drug gangs. I hate to break it to you but they are facing the same exact pressures once they get here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2707189/Violent-transnational-drug-cartels-recruiting-unaccompanied-minors-Border-Security-facilities.html
So they are fleeing these gangs in their home towns only to face the same thing here only this time they are all alone. Is that better?
@Jackson Bills
I was actually thinking more along the lines of investing in those countries, cleaning them up, s that the children weren’t in such danger.
If they were children seeking their parents, then I would help them find their parents. Many parents get stuck in the country. They are lockd in as much as they are locked out.
Churches and faith base groups such as YFT are also helping provide services on a temporary basis.
But I think it is imperative that we have these discussions.
@Jackson Bills
Yes, its better because those kids aren’t all being housed along the border. Some are here in our area. We have more control of it here than we do their on their home turf
Perfect situation? No. Far from ideal but better than there.
Why don’t we just give up on the war on drugs, legalize them, tax them and remove all the underground economy (drug dealers, cartels) and violence surrounding it. Less DEA, less incarceration, more personal responsibly, less police in drug enforcement, less judicial, etc.
@Pat.Herve
I can see the logic in that… but that does nothing to address the issue with 50k orphans we currently have.
Eh, I’m not so sure. Here all alone being recruited by MS13 or home in a dangerous area with their parents. At least at home there is someone to look after them. Here, mom and dad aren’t around to discourage or defend them from gang recruiters. 6 of one 1/2 dozen of the other… Also here there is no telling what will ultimately happen to them. They very well could end up right back at home.
Not sure that there is a mom and dad at home.
Tea-party opposition puts fate of House Republican border bill up in the air
The fate of a Republican proposal to address a brewing immigration crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border was cast into doubt Wednesday after a tea-party senator lobbied against it to House members.
The effort by Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), who made his pitch to a group of House Republicans in a closed-door evening meeting, marked another direct shot at attempts by Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to deal with the influx of illegal immigrants arriving from Central America.
“http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tea-party-opposition-puts-fate-of-house-republican-border-bill-up-in-the-air/2014/07/30/162149d2-1813-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html?tid=collaborative_1.0_strip_1”
Haha, the repugs have opted to do nothing about the influx. That means these kids can remain here, which is okay by me
Tea-party opposition puts fate of House Republican border bill up in the air
The fate of a Republican proposal to address a brewing immigration crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border was cast into doubt Wednesday after a tea-party senator lobbied against it to House members.
The effort by Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.), who made his pitch to a group of House Republicans in a closed-door evening meeting, marked another direct shot at attempts by Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to deal with the influx of illegal immigrants arriving from Central America.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tea-party-opposition-puts-fate-of-house-republican-bordhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/tea-party-opposition-puts-fate-of-house-republican-border-bill-up-in-the-air/2014/07/30/162149d2-1813-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html?tid=collaborative_1.0_strip_1er-bill-up-in-the-air/2014/07/30/162149d2-1813-11e4-9e3b-7f2f110c6265_story.html?tid=collaborative_1.0_strip_1
Haha, the repugs have opted to do nothing about the influx. That means these kids can remain here, which is okay by me
You do realize that the current administration was warned and has know about this issue for over a year now right? Or no? Did you not know that the administration was warned about this a year ago?
Either way… What a disturbing comment when we are trying to have a discussion about what we do with these children. Yeah “Haha”, it’s real funny isn’t it? Children here alone without their parents all alone.. “Haha”, so funny. Who knows how many have been physically or sexually abused along the way, “Haha” soooo funny. How many have been sold into sex industry? Who cares right! “Haha”, it’s so funny. How many died along the way? “Haha”, so funny. How many have been forced into cartel activity being here alone? “Haha”, who cares, it’s funny right Starry?
So F’n Gross…
http://m.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-aides-were-warned-of-brewing-border-crisis/2014/07/19/8b5d2282-0d1b-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html
I can assure you Starry wasn’t laughing at the plight of the kids, just the plight of some of the Republicans.
However, Jackson, you bring up a good point. How can we find homes for these kids? I don’t think we can. The solution to all this is still very obscure. Not all are orphans but certainly many have been separated from their parents. How many counties are in the United States? There are roughly 100 in Virginia. Virginia is a medium sizzed state. If each state has 100 (some will have more some less) then there are 5000 counties in the USA. Then if each county took 10, that is a manageable number.
“Haha, the repugs have opted to do nothing about the influx. That means these kids can remain here, which is okay by me”
By the way, since it’s okay with you what would YOU do with the 50k orphans? It’s pretty easy to say these kids can remain here, which is okay by me. Fine. Let them stay here.
Where Starry? Where do they stay? What happens to them? Do they go to school? Are they orphans? What would Starry do with them? I’m VERY curious as to what you propose we do.
Jackson – you and I might actually be on the same or similar page here. What do we do? I do not want to house, feed, educate and stimulate these kids until they are 18, and then pay for their college educations – I have my own children who will not get financial aid. But what are we to do is a very good question. But once again, Congress has allowed this issue to become a crisis (no immigration reform) and they are allowing it to go over a cliff and then they will be leaving for a months vacation. Either we are not learning that immigration is an issue OR our Congress does not care. Why is Cruz meddling with the House? He should be over in the Senate trying to do something – instead of creating filibuster after filibuster in order to get the wheels of the Senate in a bind. Obama says he needs additional funding – have they given any, no. The law says they are entitled to a hearing – the courts have their own time line – how do you hold them until the hearing without funding?
Since Obama came into office, Congress has become the create a crisis so we can do nothing and then push something through because we realize the crisis is hurting us – fiscal cliff, debt ceiling, budget, funding, sequestration, judicial appointments, etc.
@Jackson Bills
I think we should do comprehensive immigration reform. We should have done this 10 years ago and avoided this mess completely. That’s what I would do.
Good place to start, if only we had.
We need more young workers to enter the work force to replace baby boomers.
Importing motivated resourceful kids with a strong enough family ties to pay for their coyote seems like a good source of labor. Sure we need to train them but it is better than importing elderly grandparents who will never learn the language or contribute in the work force. Deal with the crises but be generous in interpreting whether the kids can stay. The economy can use them and we’ll all be richer for it.
Veruy good point. Some communitieis might even want to offer incentives.
Boehnor couldn’t get his bill passed so it looks like the House will start its five week vacation without having done anything about this “crisis.” Perhaps this wasn’t much of a crisis after all!
Well, it’s arguably a humanitarian crisis. Supposedly TB and scabies are spreading in those camps – it makes sense that they would be, you’re detaining people without means to effectively quarantine.
(People do have different definitions of crisis. Some kid who was detained for 6 days and is now walking around freely was testifying before Congress a day or two ago, complaining that he only got two sandwiches a day, and that it was the worst thing he’d ever been through. Interestingly, worse than the life-threatening violence he’s supposedly fleeing. Great example of the sense of entitlement that some of these lawbreakers have. 15 years old, sneaks in, spends 6 days in detention, starts lecturing Americans about how badly he was treated. That’s not a kid i want in my country)
To the extent that those kids and adults get delayed in whatever processing occurs, I think that’s a positive. It’s not a crisis to me.
To the extent that this fiasco clarifies in people’s minds that encouraging illegal immigration in supposedly innocuous ways encourages large unchecked waves of more illegal immigration, as we’re seeing borne out in recent polls, it’s not a crisis to me.
To the extent that this has obliterated the conceit that Obama had managed to make our border more secure, which I’ve been hearing for 8 years is the necessary precondition for discussion on Amnesty/”comprehensive” legislation – really putting the lie to it and showing people that our elected officials can’t deliver a secure border – it’s not a crisis to me.
To the extent that the issue grows in voters’ perceived importance, giving Boehner and Obama less wiggle room to play their games, it’s not a crisis to me.
To the extent that more Americans have watchful eyes on the outcomes of illegal immigration, which polls show is happening, it’s not a crisis to me.
I’m not happy that these kids are being held indefinitely, but I like that more than I like the previous de facto imptementation of letting them loose almost imediately, to encourage continued waves of lawlessness. So given that they’re here, I like what is happening currently. Viva Ted Cruz. Let’s let this issue stew for a good long while. The longer people actually pay attention to it, the more the facades our elites have perpetrated melt away, and the more we the people realize that there’s no up side to making a joke of our laws.
I would think that this IS a crisis, of major proportions, to the Amnesty crowd. Their whole false rationale for “comprehensive” legislation has broken down, and the issue is clarifying itself with the American people. They’ve lost ground, and that ground won’t be coming back. Additionally, the GOP is eventually going to realize that like every other conservative party worldwide, they can gain political ground by opposing unchecked immigration. Polls are starting to bear that out. Even Latino voters are not happy about the porousness of the border.
I have seen no proof that Latino voters are upset over the porousness of the borders.
The rational for comprehensive legislation is fairly clear. You can’t put band aids on whats there. All the immigration laws have to be rewritten, to match each other. Without a comprehensive overhaul you are going to get conflicting laws which is part of the problem now. This isn’t something that a bandaid approach will fix.
Now what do YOU mean as you scoff at “comprehensive?”
And, people have as much reason to trust Obama to handle the issue as they have to let Justin Ross Harris babysit their kid. Nothing can possibly happen to move this issue leftward for 2 years, and then we’re historically told that nothing can happen on this issue in an election year, or during the settle-in period for a new administration. Brace yourself for the next Amnesty push in 2017, or maybe early 2018. But meanwhjile, the American people just fight figure this issue out and push it in the other direction.
Let me ask that all important question….amnesty…you are aware that amnesty means forgiveness with no repercussions?
What bills have been proposed that have no strings attached for those here? I haven’t seen any.
What is the difference in a person with documentation and one without? Does it make a difference in the person?
“I have seen no proof that Latino voters are upset over the porousness of the borders.”
I pored through some detailed poll data and found that … don’t have time to dig that up right now … but keep an eye on the polling. Latino voters aren’t quite “open borders”; this issue’s not black-and-white.
“Now what do YOU mean as you scoff at “comprehensive? ”
To me the term is used to day “We the elites who run your country absolutely refuse to enforce the laws that we swore to uphold, and you need to give us something – a political bribe – before we will agree to try to do so”.
“you are aware that amnesty means forgiveness with no repercussions?”
Yes. To me any solution that gives people who sneaked in here the upper hand on those who didn’t is rightfuilly labeled “Amnesty”, even if token “penalties” exist in it. And the term is good to use, because it reminds us of the grand bargain from 1986 that has worked against our benefit.
@Rick Bentley
We apparently agree on very little, but this comment is right on the spot. And the majority of Americans agree with you.