Foundlings: And The Poor Have Children

The Ultimate Parent

At last, today's Sunday New York Times has an article about what is driving the exodus of children from Central America, in particular Honduras. 

The author, Sonia Nazario, has actually been reporting from these countries and she draws a distinction between "immigrants" and "refugees," which I infer means "immigrants" leave a country which is pretty bad, seeking greener pastures where "refugees" leave a country because the drug cartel will kill them if they stay, or Adolph Hitler's willing accomplices will kill them, or Fidel Castro will kill them or somebody we really do not like with kill them. If it's somebody we may have a relationship with who may kill them, say the government of Egypt or Russia or Brazil, well, then we may not call these people "refugees." 

A considerable number of these kids are not sent by parents, still back in Honduras, parents who can "get the message" when a planeload of kids arrives back in Honduras, having been sent home by the Republicans.  Their parents, in fact, are already in the United States, and the kids were trying to get to them. 

The other thing, which cannot be said too often, is that the whole Republican mantra of "gaining control of the border" or "being effective at interdiction" or "building an effective force to patrol the border"  would make sense if these children were trying to sneak into the United States, if they were trying to avoid detection. In fact, these kids are throwing themselves at the first American uniform they see (as Gail Collins has said.)  So putting the National Guard on the border as John Boehner has suggested, or lining up every soldier, sailor and marine we've got, all holding hands from one end of the Mexican border to the other, would not help because the kids would only too happily run into their arms.

Which is another way of saying Mr. Boehner has not the foggiest idea what he is talking about.  He, of course, blames it all on Obamacare.

The Last Baby Mailed and Delivered by the US Postal Service