I have been hearing of an idea
proposed by the President to set up camps in Honduras, and Guatemala to deal
with the recent surge of minor children crossing our borders illegally.
The way I have heard it reported, is
that in a humanitarian gesture, the president wishes to establish camps in
Latin American countries to process these children before they undertake the
perilous journey across Mexico to America. At first I was shocked that such an
idea was even considered, with the numbers already reported that are here. Then
I considered that there may have been some minor confusion and political
posturing that was twisting the idea away from an idea that would make a great
deal of commonsense. Or, I could have just heard wrong. Seems to happen a lot
with this president. You know, things like subsidizing only participant in
state health care exchanges, and not to participant in the federal exchange. A Lot of misunderstanding there. Good thing we
have the written law to refer back too.
That idea would be that you establish
these “refugee camps” with the cooperation of the native countries. You bring
in the United Nations to assist in the proper transportation, social, health,
and sanitary concerns. Then you ship all of the minors and adult undocumented emigrants
(refugees) from the U.S. back to the respective camps of their home country. From
there they could be processed more efficiently, in a sanitary, safe, monitored,
and controlled environment. This would also go a long way to alleviate the
concern shown from the native counties political leaders, on monitoring the
proper treatment of their citizens.
This would make the repatriation
effort more efficient. You would be able to better able identify the children’s
relatives and these children could be cared for in an environment and climate
they are accustomed too. Also, the
actual cost to feed and care for these refugees would be less than scattering
them to different locations in an unfamiliar culture and environment, and into
an environment that has stresses the local citizens and infrastructure to a
point that that may not be adequate to handle the sudden inflow of these new
visitors. This may contribute to a growing animosity of the visitors that could
hinder their assimilation into a new culture.
This would also enable other
countries in the world to step forward and take in refugees that could not be
repatriated (there may be a few legitimate cases), if that country so desires.
Also, it would provide a neutral safe haven until status of the individual minor
or adult is determined. And if their families wish to be reunited with their
children, they will know where to find them, and not have to make the difficult
journey to the U.S. to retrieve them. After all, I would be worried sick if my
child undertook a treacherous trip thousands of miles from home. Of course, I
don’t believe I would ever allow my child to do this. Although, children run
away from home every day. However, we live in a world where it is considered impolite
to judge the motivations and actions of others (unless you are a compassionate well
educated and accredited government official). Otherwise, you are just a bigot
or maybe worse a racist. Therefore, I will keep my opinion on parental responsibility
to myself.
This idea make sense on various
level. First, would be health care. Once you leave the U.S. jurisdiction,
medicines become cheaper, due to lack of intrusive governmental over site and
frivolous lawsuits. Second, food and clothing will become cheaper to feed these
children for the same reasons. Third, you can hire local labor, which is definitely
cheaper, and that will improve the lives of the indigenous citizens of the area
surrounding the refugee camp. In Washington parlance, I believe they call this
a win-win.
I would Imagine, that the overall
cost for this massive effort would fall below the $3.7 or is it now $4.2 Billion
that the president is seeking. Especially, if you get the cooperation of the
local governments and the UN to help. Maybe even a few foundations and relief
organizations would kick in to help solve this humanitarian crisis.
If this is what was really meant by
the refugee camp trial balloon, than I will give the president my full support
on this issue. If it was as reported. Then, does providing a shortcut and
flight to the U.S. solve or aggravate the current problems facing immigration?
