USCCB Condemns Separating Immigrant Children from Families

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Augustinian said:
The asylum applicants are already out of their countries, why not ask for asylum in Mexico?
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Because the pay is lower in Mexico and the exchange rate is nowhere near as good for Mexican pesos as it is for American dollars. And besides, Mexico is very intolerant of illegal immigrants unless they’re on their way to the U.S. Probably the coyote has it all arranged with the Mexican law enforcement.
 
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Ridgerunner said:
So, your choice among the presently available legal possibilities is what?
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If the choice is between letting them go or separating children from their families so their parents can be detained for a misdemeanor offense? Are you serious? These families do not pose a threat serious enough to warrant that. They simply don’t. We have the right to enforce our laws, but we are limited in the means we may use to do so. If it is urgent that we have a legal way to detain families together, then it is not urgent that we separate children from their parents. It is, rather, urgent that the law be changed. We do have to keep our priorities straight, here. The sky is not going to fall if there is a delay in obtaining a legal avenue for the detention of families. It is going to fall for some little children if we keep allowing violations of immigration law to be used as a pretext for this kind of government action.
 
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blackforest said:
Your conspiracy theory about people pretending to be poor and oppressed so that they can lie about needing asylum has zero merit or support.
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It would appear that the great majority of their claims to be granted asylum are rejected. I really don’t know where to get all the numbers, but there is this:

The [DOJ] report states that 35,695 illegal alien adults with children were apprehended illegally at the U.S. border and were subsequently released without being detained between July 18, 2014 and May 26, 2015. Of these, 12,441 have had final rulings on their immigration cases.

About 11,516 of these adults were given orders of removal by an immigration judge.

So, of the 12,441 whose cases have been adjudicated, 11,516 were rejected. That’s just over 92%. That is a fair indication that most asylum requests are bogus.
 
Ridgerunner said:
Because the pay is lower in Mexico and the exchange rate is nowhere near as good for Mexican pesos as it is for American dollars. And besides, Mexico is very intolerant of illegal immigrants unless they’re on their way to the U.S. Probably the coyote has it all arranged with the Mexican law enforcement.
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I don’t know what is going on in Mexico or what their laws allow. I do know, as I used to tell my children, that finding someone else who is doing something unjust does not give an excuse for the party with a conscience to commit the same injustice.

As I told them, you never become the best if you never demand anything of yourself except that you be better than the worst. Since when did the United States of America look to the world to tell her how to be just, to be her model for the minimum requirements, instead of the US striving to be the model of uprightness and justice for the world?
 
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PetraG said:
It is, rather, urgent that the law be changed. We do have to keep our priorities straight, here. The sky is not going to fall if there is a delay in obtaining a legal avenue for the detention of families. It is going to fall for some little children if we keep allowing violations of immigration law to be used as a pretext for this kind of government action.
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Call Chuck Schumer, then, and tell him to cooperate on comprehensive reform.

But if 84% of the “catch and release” people never turn up for their hearings, what do you want to do about that? Nothing? What?

I’ll grant that Trump is in a trap with this, just as Obama was, but in a different way. There’s really nothing I know of that can be done expeditiously other than just let them all go and disappear.
 
pnewton said:
What happens in the criminal justice system is nothing like Trump pulled on the border. Those children, almost all, end up with some family, usually another parent or grandparent. This happens with felonies or serious crimes. Even those that do not have time to prepare, make good-bye’s and understand to some extent what was happening, as opposed to being hustled off to the shower never to see their parents again. They may never see their parents again. That is a heck of price to pay for a crime the equivalent of having a joint, or driving without insurance, or with a suspended license.
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You do realize this stuff has always gone on, correct?

This isn’t new. Not in the least.
 
PetraG said:
I don’t know what is going on in Mexico or what their laws allow. I do know, as I used to tell my children, that finding someone else who is doing something unjust does not give an excuse for the party with a conscience to commit the same injustice.

As I told them, you never become the best if you never demand anything of yourself except that you be better than the worst. Since when did the United States of America look to the world to tell her how to be just, to be her model for the minimum requirements, instead of the US striving to be the model of uprightness and justice for the world?
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Again, how do you think this problem has been dealt with in the past?

This isn’t new. The volume is what’s the problem.

Had crackdown on immigration been carried out to this extent all along, this problem wouldn’t exist to this extent now.
 
PetraG said:
If the choice is between letting them go or separating children from their families so their parents can be detained for a misdemeanor offense? Are you serious? These families do not pose a threat serious enough to warrant that. They simply don’t.
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These individuals have not been vetted, whether or not they are gang members,criminals, insane, or engaged in human trafficking is unknown. Whether their children are actually their children, that’s unknown as well, unverified. They have no means of support, and there is no way to ensure that they show up for their hearing months and months down the line.

Further, if they are able to successfully stay in the United States, they call and tell their friends and relatives in Nicaragua or El Salvador, and additional people make the trek to the US Frontier armed with the same story that was able to get their friends here.
 
I won’t be surprised if that is the case.

Maybe Mexican law enforcement have a cut on the coyotes’ income.
 
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Pup7 said:
Again, how do you think this problem has been dealt with in the past?

This isn’t new. The volume is what’s the problem.

Had crackdown on immigration been carried out to this extent all along, this problem wouldn’t exist to this extent now.
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Tell the country that has this figured out. What is it like to live in that country?
 
By the way, my “modest proposal” is a constitutional amendment that gives citizenship based on birth here only for those whose mother was legally a long-term resident when she gave birth here. If she is here illegally when she gives birth or is only on a tourist visa, the child does not automatically have citizenship. Perhaps it can be granted for a reason, perhaps Congress can be free to create a route to applying for citizenship for children born here to those here legally but temporarily or even here illegally, but it is not automatic.

I don’t see a problem with that. We can accept someone born here as a “person without a nation” without giving them citizenship. The child and the mother belong together, though. This would eliminate the incentive to come here illegally and give birth in order to give citizenship, which I have to think is a dangerous temptation to dangle in front of a pregnant woman who probably should not be traveling.
 
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PetraG said:
We can accept someone born here as a “person without a nation” without giving them citizenship.
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The problem with that is that non-citizens aren’t permitted to vote and if they don’t have a “path to citizenship” and voting, it really doesn’t help out the politicians that much.
 
PetraG said:
By the way, my “modest proposal” is a constitutional amendment that gives citizenship based on birth here only for those whose mother was legally a long-term resident when she gave birth here.
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So if my dad was an American military member, and my mom was a German national, I can’t claim citizenship through my father?

You can in Europe and in Canada.
 
Augustinian said:
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LeafByNiggle:
who are driven by necessity to cross illegally. Yes, they are driven by necessity
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The asylum applicants are already out of their countries, why not ask for asylum in Mexico?
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Is that a rhetorical question? Or do you really want to know? If you really want to know and don’t already have an answer figured out in your head, then I suggest you ask the asylum seekers themselves. But if you think you know enough about the life of a migrant fleeing violence, then don’t bother inquiring further.
 
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It is extremely common for deported parents to turn their children over to relatives or even friends here in the U.S. That’s voluntary, and it happens all the time.
 
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