From last October to the end of May, the Border Patrol
reports that 162,000 people from countries “other than Mexico” have illegally
entered the United States across our southern border. Among them were 47,017
unaccompanied children, sent from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador or Nicaragua
to join relatives in the US.
From Fox News: “… as many children as have crossed the
border, their numbers are eclipsed by the ‘family units’ racing to get into the
United States. They are traveling hundreds of miles with small children,
knowing that under U.S. law, they will not be deported immediately. Many of
them are in the advanced stages of pregnancy and will likely have a child that
will become an American citizen. All are seeking a better life than they had in
their home country.”
Obama told Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in a recent
phone conversation that illegal immigrant children who are flooding across the
U.S.-Mexico border will not be eligible for amnesty. But illegal immigrants are
not buying it, especially in light of Obama's actions and words. It seems
everyone in Central America is convinced that if you get across our border you
can stay here.
I wonder where they got that idea. Do you think that maybe
the Dream Act or the fact that we allow illegal immigrant lawyers who graduate
from a US college to practice law here might have something to do with it? Or
is it that we already have some 22 million illegal immigrants snugly living and
working in this country – some even voting – could make them think they can
stay?
But our own President said they couldn’t expect amnesty. Of
course, he also said if you like your health care plan you can keep it, along
with any number of not-so “little white lies.”
Representative Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, told KSAT-TV that
drug cartels control Central America’s human smuggling operations. “Most of
them [illegals] say, ‘It wasn’t my decision. It was the smuggling organization
that got us here,’” Cuellar explained to KSAT of what immigrants at shelters
told him.
Whoa Nellie! The drug cartels made then do it? Are these kids drug mules? Or are they simply being
used by the cartels as a diversion. One theory is that the cartels have gone
into trafficking children to divert border resources to Texas while the drugs
are more easily transported through other border states.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández blames the US drug culture for all the ills Central America is forced to endure.
There can be no doubt drugs are at the core of Central America’s problems. While the Colombian Cali cartel and Medellín cartels dominated drug suppliers in the late 1980s and early 90s, today there are the Mexican Juárez Cartel, Tijuana Cartel, Los Zetas, and the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel, along with other faction integrated by the Gulf Cartel, Sinaloa Cartel and La Familia Cartel.
While competition is a healthy thing in legitimate business,
in the narcotics business it generates warring factions – wars as horrific and
bloody as any between countries. Unlike wars between countries, though, cartels
have no rules. Civilians are open targets and tools for the cartel’s twisted
conduct of war.
It seems we have opened another chapter on the horror story that is the assault on America’s borders. Hordes of estranged children, pregnant women, and teens are being intentionally shipped across our borders like exported goods. It’s time the these Central American countries stepped up to care for their own people and put an absolute end to drug and human trafficking. The first and most important step would be to end corruption and thoroughly wipe out the drug cartels.
Of course, America must also do our part by curtailing
illegal drug use. Illegal drugs – including Marijuana – have no legitimate
purpose. Relaxing the drug laws, or penalties, or even legalizing any of them
can only exacerbate lawlessness in drug providing countries, increase pressure
on our borders, and confound any reasonable efforts at immigration reform.
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