Politics won’t resolve border crisis

Dear Editor,

Finding a solution to a crisis requires having some understanding of it. The current crisis on the U.S. southern border is a sad example of this fact.

The arrival of large numbers of people, most of them women and children, from a number of Central American countries has been going on for several years. We know the causes of this. As the New York Times has reported, smugglers in those countries have been spreading rumors that this is a time of expanded amnesty for illegal immigrants in the U.S.

These rumors have galvanized many families desperate to remove their children from situations of violence and poverty that are life-threatening as well as destructive of their future hopes. The smugglers are also charging raised rates for their service (up to $7500 by some reports).

A 2008 U.S. law to oppose human trafficking (the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act) added protections for children from non-contiguous countries who cross the border. These countries – Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala – are where most of the current children and others are arriving from (most of them are in fact of Mayan descent). The law requires a court process to determine whether they receive refugee status, and humane treatment for them while in the U.S. The numbers of arrivals and lack of funding for immigration courts has increased the backlog of cases.

The Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals policy being attacked by many Republicans would not actually apply to these children, as the law clearly states (http://www.dhs.gov/deferred-action-childhood-arrivals). The smugglers are misinforming people in Central America about that fact, just as, sadly, many politicians here are misinforming Americans. But misinformation is a central feature of this crisis.

Another misunderstanding is that the crisis reflects a failure to “secure the border” – but this ignores the facts that a) spending on border security has dramatically increased in recent years, and b) these arrivals are being willingly taken into custody. They are not trying to enter undetected, because of the misinformation they’ve been given about amnesty.

We have a crisis caused in part by good intentions (fighting human trafficking) and by mendacity (smugglers.) The response in the U.S. has been in part very ugly, as some politicians and pundits rage about an “invasion” and some crowds gather to oppose the children being placed in facilities where they can be cared for. But countering this have been individuals, communities, and churches who have stepped forward to help in a spirit of humanity.

An emergency response requires emergency funding, and then a longer-term approach which includes policies aimed at the countries of origin. Some politicians are fixated on the costs of President Obama’s modest proposal – but any solution is going to cost money.

Failing to deal with the problem also costs money. We can choose to pay to address this problem or to pay to fail. The second option serves the interest of no one but some politicians.

Vinny Mendoza,

Ponchatoula, Louisiana