Pubdate: Thu, 03 Jul 2014
Source: Chico News & Review, The (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.newsreview.com/chico/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/559

ROOT OF BORDER CROSSINGS

It's Time to Look at the Real Reasons This Country Is Flooded With
Illegal Immigrants.

The U.S. is seeing an influx of undocumented immigrants in historic
numbers, many of them young children whom parents have entrusted to
smugglers. According to U.S. Border Patrol statistics, more than
52,000 Central American children traveling alone have been picked up
by authorities.

Those from Mexico can be returned to their country of birth
immediately. But the same isn't true of the kids from elsewhere. Under
U.S. immigration law, they will be housed in America until their cases
can be heard by immigration courts-a system that was overwhelmed prior
to the recent surge. Research out of Syracuse University revealed that
the courts were faced with about 370,000 cases as of March. Each one
is estimated to take a year and a half at minimum to resolve.

In the meantime, the U.S. is housing and caring for the children.
That's not sitting well with a lot of folks, including those who
showed up this week in Murrieta to protest the busloads of
undocumented refugees who were being transported to a border patrol
facility in that Southern California city. From there, they would be
placed with family members around the United States under the
supervision of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Those protesters successfully diverted the buses to facilities farther
south, but they do nothing about the larger issue. The root here is
that this is a humanitarian crisis. These innocent children are
fleeing gang violence perpetuated by the drug trade, one the U.S. is
complicit in by its so-called war on drugs, which only serves to
enrich cartels and traffickers.

This paper has advocated for years for the decriminalization of
marijuana as well as a comprehensive federal immigration policy. And
those are just the first steps to helping stem the surge of
undocumented immigrants. It's hard for us to imagine the desperation
they must feel, but doing so is the only way to deal with the issue.
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