howeird | Running Battles (Reply)

Am having a running battle with

lemmozine on FB and here about the chronologically challenged people flooding into the US without parents or papers.

He is all about being good to the children, and I believe he has a greatly exaggerated concept of the dangers they are escaping. I have a greatly exaggerated concept of how these things should be done legally.

We share a heritage of grand and/or great-grandparents being kicked out of their homes by fascist governments who really were killing them what did not scoot fast enough. All of these folks found ways to enter the United States legally, despite racist government quotas, anti-semitic bosses, poverty, and questionable hygiene.

I have no problem with the color of their skin, their religion, their place of birth or their questionable hygiene. I have a problem with their parents not having the guts to come with them. I have a bigger problem with their parents not finding a legal way into the country. It costs far less to apply for a visa than it does to hire smugglers. About 10% of the cost per person. If they are truly refugees, there is a pathway to claim that status and bring the whole family.

But bigger than that, I have a problem with their own countries not fixing the problems they are trying to run away from.

lemmozine is thinking of the children, and I admire that. I am also thinking of the children, but in the long term.