"There are few provisions made to accommodate the children. The week before we were there, a delegation of agents went to meet with members of Congress and begged them for additional money to buy Pampers, toothbrushes and other necessities. They were turned down flat. These meager supplies have to be purchased with the border patrol budget, which is stretched to the limit. I then walked up to a fenced area holding many skinny young men. An agent standing beside me asked if I would like to speak to them. He offered to translate for me, to which I replied, "Please tell them that God loves them." Then I said, "Now tell them that I love them, too." They smiled and waved timidly. My heart aches for these poor people. Lest I be misunderstood, let me make clear that I am among the majority of Americans who want the border to be closed to those who attempt to enter illegally. There has to be a better solution than this. I have wondered, with you, why the authorities don't just deny these refugees access to this nation. Can't we just send them back to their places of origin? The answer I received was no, for reasons I will explain. Only 10 percent of the detainees are Mexicans. This year alone, people have come to our southern border from 127 countries, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, India, China, Palestine, Albania, San Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and other nations around the world. They speak their native tongues, which means they can't be understood by each other or the staff. What are we to do with them? The Mexican government will not take them back, and there is no place to send them. Our current laws do not permit us to repatriate them to their country of origin. This is a disaster with no solution or projected conclusion. -- James Dobson
So, tell them God loves them. Tell them I love them. Then shut the borders to them. How does that compute in your heart James? And please, stop spreading administration lies and propaganda. Even the Vice President admitted they have the money for the basics such as toothbrushes. The disagreement over funding is that the administration refused any measures of accountability and that has been proven to be a fatal mistake for the migrants. They were not "turned down flat"; but you are not after the truth here are you James? If your heart truly ached for these poor people you would not be trying to marginalize the situation and blame everyone except who is rounding them up into cages.
"Let me tell you how these desperate people come to be our responsibility. They are the lowest rung of many societies. They sell their shanties and any other possessions to scrape together $3,500 to $10,000 to pay "coyotes" to guide them. I don't know what happens to those who can't meet this demand. Apparently, most manage to pay the fee, and arrive penniless and profoundly needy. I was told that some of the vulnerable children are "recycled" repeatedly to help men gain entry to this country. An unknown number of these men are hardened criminals and drug runners, and they are difficult to identify. Most make their way across the border. Here's something else you should know. I have been under the impression that these would-be immigrants try to cross the Rio Grande River and outrun or evade the agents. That is not true of most. They come in large groups, from 100 to 400 people at a time. As I write this letter, a record 1,200 people arrived together at El Paso. The refugees quickly give themselves up to agents. That is why they have made this journey. They know they will be fed, medicated and treated humanely, even if they are in holding areas while they are in our custody. Then they will be released on American soil. This is the system set up by a liberal Congress and judges. It is a well-known fact that President Obama's administration established many of these unworkable policies, and Congress is steadfastly unwilling to change them. Every effort at reform has been overridden or ignored. It is set in stone. Democrats want massive numbers of immigrants who will someday become voters. Some Republicans support the policies because they want cheap labor for agricultural purposes. The border could be fixed, but there are very few in authority who seem to care." -- James Dobson
Please James stop! You will answer for every loose word! You have no idea if anything you are saying is true. You are just regurgitating talking points! Children are recycled to enable hardened criminals and drug dealers? Nonsense! The refugees quickly turn themselves in because that is what the law requires. I see you make no mention of the policies that have had so many turned away at legitimate points of entry -- forcing them to try and get in illegally. Then to try and lay this at the previous administration's feet is just more White House propaganda. You see what Dobson's agenda is here though. To parrot the current administration talking points while casting blame anywhere else, all while pretending to care. The alleged border fix you refer to will not stop the humanitarian crisis James. It will just ensure that we will not have to deal with it and see all of those images that make us so uncomfortable. Are not some of these people our brothers and sisters in Christ James? The ones who are not -- do they not need to hear Gospel of Jesus Christ? Is your answer when you stand before Christ really going to center on Romans 13? Good luck with that.
"Getting back to my story, our group of national faith leaders and humanitarian organizations was taken to a grassy park underneath the international bridges where the "coyotes" bring the refugees. We stood 50 feet away from them and watched as about 200 people sat on the ground. Then buses arrived to transport them to Border Control. Agents have to work fast because another group will be showing up soon, and then another and another. The would-be immigrants are taken to the center and given cursory medical exams. Then they are segregated by sex and age and placed in the fenced-in areas to be held for the next 20 days until they are processed and given a Notice to Appear. If that sounds inhumane, what would you or I do? There is simply no other place to "house" them." -- James Dobson
It does not just sound inhumane -- it is inhumane. It is also unchristian. Your framing this as an impossible situation shows that you should not be commenting on it. What would I do? For starters I would not separate kids from their families. Then at least I could rest knowing most kids have someone watching them. Next, I would stop the practice of turning away people from the agreed upon entry points for asylum. This would prevent people from trying to sneak in, such as the father and child who died crossing the Rio Grande last week. Next, I would triple or more the amount of staff needed to adjudicate the asylum claims so that everyone had fair representation and their cases heard. Next, if the facilities are insufficient, I would contract companies who could resolve this with full accountability. That means the company that builds the shelters and stocks them are not the same one who operates it and not the same one who is assigned to protect the people in it. Next, I would review every single post in this secret Facebook group and fire any border agent who mocked migrants or posted inappropriate pictures. I am not naive enough to think this solves everything but we start with what can be solved and work our way towards full resolution. We do not throw our hands in the air and cry its too difficult.
"Mismanagement of the border has a long history. A federal judge years ago issued a ruling called the Flores Settlement Agreement. It is still the source of many problems. It requires that any unaccompanied alien child must be released within 72 hours. This is now the law of the land, and poor people around the world know it. A single male typically seeks to find a child and a woman to help him "game the system." Clearly, many of these are "fake families," but there is no documentation in Pakistani or Bangladesh to challenge their claims. Lawyers at home have told them to claim that they are fleeing from oppression or seeking asylum. They are allowed to plead their cases to judges, but there are too few of them to keep up with the volume. These people are given a court case and released. The vast majority are never seen again. Most then become "anchor babies" who are citizens with rights to bring members of their families. Others are given transportation to an American city where they disappear into the culture." -- James Dobson
Since James Dobson likes to obscure the truth for his political purposes allow me to clear some more obfuscation up. A judge did not decree the Flores Settlement. The word "settlement" should tip you off to that. This was an agreed upon set of standards to resolve a lawsuit. So, the government and the plaintiffs settled the lawsuit and the result is know as the Flores Settlement Agreement. Essentially this was about detaining and abusing children in the name of the state. It is not that children must be released but rather that you try to find a family member willing to accept custody while the hearing is pending on their asylum case. By the way, if you cannot find someone you do not just release them. The settlement says you must transfer them out of a secure detention facility because we should not be in the habit of treating innocent children as hardcore criminals. The only other portion of the agreement is to implement standards for care of children being detained. The other piece of misinformation here is the notion that someone could be released into the culture and thus become an anchor baby. That is patently stupid. The ugly term anchor baby refers to children born in the states to an illegal immigrant being granted citizenship status because they were born here. This may be a point of debate regarding what the laws are and should be but it has nothing to do with the fact that today it is the law.
