Many undocumented immigrants who end up in the United States are not able to see their children for many years. This is clearly not a normal situation, even though these immigrants are adults who have made their own choices. This article will not address the moral aspects of these choices. As the saying goes, “judge not lest thee be judged.” Instead, it will focus on another aspect of this problem that immigration authorities and social service organizations have met in recent years.
Today, according to The Washington Post, tens of thousands of children and adolescents are attempting to cross the Mexico-United States border illegally in order to be reunited with their parents or relatives. Some undertake this trip on their own, while others turn for help to smugglers, or coyotes, whose services are paid for by their parents residing illegally in the United States. This is a fairly dangerous step taken under enormous pressure. There have been dozens of cases of coyotes taking advantage of girls, forcing them to have sexual intercourse. Also, coyotes have frequently left the tired and sick who can go no further to the mercy of fate. Nevertheless, parents take the risk and hand over their last cent to the smugglers in order to help their children enter the United States.
In 2001, U.S. Border Patrol officers detained 98,000 undocumented minors. Last year that number reached 115,000. One can only guess how many children slipped through their hands.
In previous years, detained minors were either sent home immediately (this is what would usually happen to residents of neighboring Mexico) or sent to immigration jails, where undocumented immigrants from Central and South America would await deportation. However, in 2004, the situation began to change dramatically.
Due to persistent pressure from human rights advocates, courts decided to send a portion of those children who had relatives in the United States to special shelters under the jurisdiction of the Division of Unaccompanied Children's Services (DUCS), part of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). In 2004, there were three such shelters; today there are 33. Texas and California have the most – 12 and three, respectively. There are four in Arizona, three in Florida, three in Washington, two in Indiana, one in Illinois and one in New York.
The main job of DUCS employees is to convince parents and other relatives to collect the children before Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials convince an immigration judge to deport the young border crossers. However, even though they have paid significant sums of money to get their children into the United States, parents and other relatives are clearly not eager to come into contact with DUCS representatives. It's easy to understand why: they have a basic fear of ending up in the hands of the immigration authorities.
"We always stress that we have no relationship whatsoever with law enforcement agencies," stated DUCS director Maureen Dunn in an interview with The Washington Post. "Our goal is to reunite families."
Many parents would be happy to believe Dunn, but they are scared of traveling to the counties near the border where the majority of shelters are located. After all, if they enter a "risk zone," they themselves might end up in the hands of ICE agents. In fact, I don’t know of any case of parents who go to collect their children and end up in an immigration jail.
The fact that the very process to reunite families contributes to an increase in the number of illegal immigrants cannot be ignored. Judge for yourselves: by law, parents who have collected their children from shelters are required to appear before an immigration judge, the judge, in turn, is required by law to deport the family. The Washington Post, observing the rules of political correctness, writes, "We do not know how many families appear before a judge, and how many ignore the law and melt into the background." In fact, even a fool understands that no undocumented immigrant – with the exception of a complete idiot – is going to go meet with an immigration judge. Why bother if the only possible outcome is deportation?
Opponents of illegal immigration believe that the official competition institutionalized by Washington between the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice –DUCS social workers against ICE agents – is a parody of immigration policy. Conservatives are indignant that the number of undocumented minors in shelters is growing steadily. As of September 30 (the last day of the 2005-2006 fiscal year), the shelters held 7,800 children and adolescents (25 percent of whom are girls and 20 percent of whom are under the age of 15). For their part, liberals are outraged that children are again being separated from their parents and deported. They believe that the only way to solve this humanitarian problem is through large-scale immigration reform. Liberals are convinced that amnesty, which is being addressed in the Senate's version of the reform bill, would remove the family reunification question from the agenda.
I am certain that many of our readers support the conservatives, so I'll lend my voice to the liberals. And why? Because there's no use in crying over spilt milk. Since millions of foreigners have been allowed to settle illegally in the United States, there's really no sense in complaining when more and more young people try to reunite with their parents. If the flow cannot be stopped, then the only option is to direct its course.
