Refugees, Immigrants or Players?

Madison has now accepted at least 50 of the Central American kids who have shown up at our borders, unaccompanied during the past year or so. What began as a trickle has turned into a river that continues to grow wider and deeper. The press has had an increasingly difficult time trying to determine what to call them. Immigrant is probably most popular, because the press in general wants them to be viewed in the most benign way possible, and immigrant accomplishes that. But the problem with that term is that it deliberately erases the line between legal and illegal immigration. And the liberals, which includes the majority in the press, don't like to use the qualifier "illegal," even when it is entirely appropriate. They are fond of saying "Nobody is illegal," even though that's obviously not true.

Furthermore, the law that allows these Central American children to stay here, as opposed to say Mexican or Canadian youth, requires that they be refugees from something. Consequently, "refugees" is now being used interchangeably with  "immigrants." The law was apparently written in order to address child sex trafficking, and they had some reason for excluding border states from this particular situation. 

So in the article that announced these new arrivals, they stated that they were all fleeing "gang violence."

All of them? Really?

The list of nations from which these children come, I'm sure have criminal gangs: Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador. But they are not even in the same league as Mexico. Furthermore, those gangs have been around for decades. So why is this all happening now?

For some reason, the notion that we are getting played in all this, is dismissed out of hand. "These are children! Look at them, they are sick, scared and desperate to escape violence. Have you no heart?"

Well I do have a heart, but I also have eyes and a brain. And something tells me that 60,000 children, from multiple countries, did not all show up here at the same time because MS-13 was expanding in each of their neighborhoods. Why is it so incomprehensible that the guy on the street in Tegucigalpa might have learned about this quirk in American immigration law, and recognized the opportunity to exploit it? Some people seem to be of the opinion that the average guy in Central America can't possibly understand the loophole that allows them to stay in this country despite being picked up for crossing the border illegally. Why not? You don't think word has gotten back to El Salvador about what happened to the kid who left and went to America last Fall? 60,000 in six months? There aren't 60,000 gang members in Central America to threaten them. I do not believe all these kids, or even the majority, are actually being threatened by gangs, but I promise you all of them know that that is what they are supposed say to the Border Patrol. Take note of the fact that these kids are not being "captured" by our Border Patrol, they are seeking them out and turning themselves in. They understand that is the way to get in and stay.