The Southern Child Exodus Problem

The Southern Child Exodus Problem
by Brian Thomas Armstrong

When President George W. Bush signed the law into effect in 2008 that guaranteed immigration hearings for most unaccompanied minors caught trying to cross the Mexican and Canadian border, there was little to no objection nor protest from society, nor the two main political factions of Republicans or Democrats that control American society, and certainly not from the religious right to which Bush was pandering to at the time, using child sex trafficking as the main justification for the enactment of the law.

The present day immigration problems and controversies brewing over these unaccompanied immigrant children, are that the law only covers children who are foreign citizens from our neighboring borders/countries of Mexico and Canada with assured lengthy and expensive due process rights once apprehended by U.S. authorities, not South American and other countries unaccompanied children. The combination of that law and Obama’s past perceived soft spot,  especially down south for immigration reform and easier pathways to citizenship have opened up the flood gates of illegal immigration crossings on our border with Mexico, especially children to overwhelming proportions. The perpetrating South American countries, their people, and their governments certainly haven’t changed in the past decade, the governments and therefore the main offending countries of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador are just as corrupt, violent, and miserable to live in if you’re not a wealthy tourist as they have always been. What has changed is that Children “refugee’s” from their nations chaos has become the highlight news story in America. A family with children, single moms with kids, and of course the lone migrant worker were easily lumped in together for deportation with-out pulling to many heart strings in the media, or of course the main staple of American social hysteria, - Republican, Democrat, and somewhere in-between factions that perpetually use crisis, any form of crisis, to their vindictive and selfish political advantages.

The cost of housing and feeding these children is not “really” the issue here. After spending billions upon billions on senseless wars that go nowhere, and then sit back and watch the places we invaded after we pull out revert back to even more chaos than when we first interjected ourselves on these countries lives, when we of course finally get tired of the enormous cost, or all of a sudden once again realize/remember the futility/folly of war - we as a people can hardly bitch about how much it will cost us to feed hungry children. This is truly a political crisis, a humanitarian crisis, a local government spending crisis along the southern border, but hardly a national crisis for American society. What this crisis is to the Average American, and should be, is a crisis of conscience. 

What should be done about this new immigration “crisis” you say – we should simply follow our laws as they stand now, follow our hearts and American sense of decency and humanity, thus redeeming ourselves in the eyes of the World, God, and most importantly Ourselves.

Brian Thomas Armstrong – The Southern Child Exodus Problem
The Social Hysteria Blog – http://thesocialhysteriablog.com