The Children's Migration Movement of 2014

What You Should Know

By Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz

32nd Senatorial District

718-991-3161

The Children's Migration Movement of 2014

You should know that last year, 38,833 unaccompanied minors were apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol. This year, as many as 74,000 unaccompanied children from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are expected to be caught at the United States border. Whoever is organizing this movement of undocumented migrant children is very effective.

You should know that when Mexican citizens are caught illegally crossing the U.S. border, they are quickly sent back - but when citizens from other countries are caught illegally crossing the U.S. border, they are processed through America's immigration court system.

You should know, The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act is a federal law that passed in 1998 by a bipartisan voice vote in Congress and was signed by President George Bush before he left office. The law requires that undocumented children must either be put in the care of family members who live in the United States of America, or be processed through the Office of Refugee Resettlement. This law also allows migrant children to seek an asylum hearing before an immigration judge.

You should already know that for many, many years, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have been plagued with poverty, and the families and children have suffered tremendously. While Americans have been very generous with relief aid, there has never been a time when children were sent in the tens of thousands to live in the United States. I have to wonder who pays for all of the specifics involved in transporting thousands and thousands of children through dangerous countries to arrive on the border of the USA.

My dear reader, does anyone else think that aside from rumors that have given expectations to people in Central America that they will be given a "permiso" and be allowed to stay in the United States of America - that there are other factors involved?

Are there any investigative journalists here who can report less about the coyotes who are shipping children off to live in the United States - and find out if our government and the governments in Central America are cooperating to put this together? Can anyone in the media find out if - like efforts to bring Peter Pan children here from Cuba - there are groups of Americans who are paying for and orchestrating any of this? I find it hard to believe that all of a sudden, thousands and thousands of children in Central America are showing up at our border.

You should know that as thousands and thousands of children continue to flee the poverty and violence in Central America, news reports will continue. There will be stories in the news about immigration and stories about busloads of children met with angry anti-immigration protesters. There will be stories in the news about children in Central America being tortured and used as drug mules and assassins. And there will be stories in the news about why President Obama needs to fulfill his 2004 campaign promise of comprehensive immigration reform.

Ladies and gentlemen, I will read all of those stories, but I will also look for any news reports about who else is involved in this movement of undocumented children - because whoever is behind this is masterful.

This is Senator Rev. Rubén Díaz, and this is what you should know.