The recent surge of unaccompanied Central American children crossing the southern border of the United States has created a humanitarian crisis and sharpened an already contentious debate about federal immigration policy.
The panel on Monday’s Kentucky Tonight explored the issue and illustrated the divergent opinions that legal and illegal immigrants to America can generate.
The influx of children turning themselves in at border crossings between the United States and Mexico began making headlines earlier this year as immigration and law enforcement officials struggled to handle the situation. Customs and Border Protection statistics show the number of unaccompanied youth apprehended doubled in the last two years, from more than 31,000 in fiscal year 2013 to nearly 63,000 in FY 2014.
Nima Kulkarni, an international business and immigration lawyer in Louisville, says the majority of the children come from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Many flee to escape forced conscription into gangs as well as rape, sexual assault, and murder.
The United States isn’t the only destination for these youth. Kentucky Refugees Ministries attorney Rebecca O’Neill says that neighboring Central American countries including Panama, Nicaragua, and Belize have seen a 700 percent increase in asylum applications from immigrant youth.
Policy Issues Contribute to Problem
O’Neill says procedures established several years ago to address unaccompanied child immigrants wasn’t designed to handle the thousands of youth now seeking entrance to America. She points to the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which President George W. Bush signed near the end of his second term. That law prohibits children entering this country alone from being quickly sent back to their countries of origin. (The act excludes Mexican and Canadian children.)
O’Neill says we don’t know how many of the children currently arriving at the American border would qualify as refugees. She contends these youth shouldn’t be called illegal immigrants because she says they’ve done nothing wrong. They present themselves to law enforcement when they cross a border entry point, she explains.
Jessamine County Attorney Brian Goettl also blames the influx on what he sees as President Obama’s failure to enforce existing immigration laws. He attributes this to Obama’s desire to appeal to voters in states with significant Latino populations. Goettl says Central American parents sense a “green light” to send their children here because they believe the children will be allowed to stay here.
One example of the president’s approach to immigration is a 2012 Obama administration memorandum called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which allows some children who entered the country illegally to remain here without the threat of deportation. The directive was Obama’s response to Congress’ failure to pass the Dream Act, which would’ve granted residency to certain immigrants brought here. as children and who had completed school or served in the military.
Dan Rose, a Lexington lawyer and president of Americans First, says DACA, in effect, relaxed prosecution provisions of existing immigration laws and created an incentive for youth to come to the United States. Rose claims it’s another example of how American immigration policy has gone unenforced for more than two decades.
Who Arrives Here
While it’s difficult to get accurate statistics on the ages of the youth coming to America, most are minors, and about 30 percent to 40 percent of them are girls. O’Neill says the children must be sent to refugee resettlement facilities overseen by the Department for Health and Human Services within 72 hours of their arrival here. The children are detained for a stringent evaluation process to see if they qualify for refugee status, and to determine if they have family already in America who could take custody of them.
An asylum officer or judge determines a child’s refugee status based on the likelihood that the youth would face persecution based on their religion, ethnicity, social group, or political affiliation. Nima Kulkarni says gang violence can also be the basis of an asylum claim for children from Guatemala and El Salvador.
With so many children flocking to this country, Brian Goettl complains that border patrol agents have become babysitters, leaving America’s southern boundary vulnerable to more serious problems, including transmission of diseases like tuberculosis, or infiltration by Middle Eastern terrorists. He also claims the system is so overwhelmed that thousands of immigrant youth can’t be accounted for and may have been released into the general American population.
Here’s an excerpt of the Kentucky Tonight immigration discussion:
Money Sought to Address the Problem
In July, Obama asked Congress for more than $3 billion in emergency funding to help respond to the border crisis. That money would’ve paid for housing and caring for the children, additional immigration judges to process the refugee cases, and increased border patrol agents and surveillance.
Just before leaving for summer recess, the House passed a bill that would’ve allocated about $700 million to the problem. Democrats opposed the measure because it included provisions to make it easier for immigrations officials to deport Central American children who entered the country illegally.
With limited resources to address the backlog of cases, much less care for the thousands of children being detained, some question the money being devoted to the issue. One Kentucky Tonight caller argued that federal tax dollars should be used to help American children who are victims of drug and gang violence. Kentucky Refugee Ministries’ Rebecca ONeill says that caring for native youth and foreign-born children who are endangered aren’t mutually exclusive. And she contends many Americans support refugee resettlement efforts, and value the social and economic benefits refugees ultimately bring to the country.
Special Work Visas Also Disputed
While lawmakers and border officials try to address the current crisis, other immigration issues have moved to the back burner for now. For example, business groups like the Chambers of Commerce have argued for an expansion of the H-1B visa program, which allows companies to temporarily hire highly skilled specialty workers.
Lexington lawyer Dan Rose and Jessamine County Attorney Brian Goettl are strongly critical of that program, saying it takes jobs from American workers and deflates wages. They contend that legal and illegal immigrants create too much supply in the labor pool, forcing pay rates down for American employees.
Nima Kulkarni, the Louisville immigration lawyer, says employers pay substantial fees to apply for the lottery to obtain the limited number of available H-1B visas. Those who do employ workers using those visas must pay prevailing wage rates, which Kulkarni says are 30 percent higher than market rates for American workers. So, she argues, it would actually be cheaper and less time-consuming for companies to hire American workers – if qualified applicants are available for the specific jobs.
The opinions expressed on Kentucky Tonight and in this program synopsis are the responsibility of the participants and do not necessarily reflect those of KET.
