'Suffer the Little Children' — Are Kids Just Pawns in the Immigration Crisis?
The Bible is being used by both sides in the current immigration debate. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is quoting Romans 13 on how we should obey the government since it's been ordained by God.
His critics likewise invoke the Word of God. Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California says that God is on her side when it comes to protesting anyone involved in the Trump administration because of the families-separation-at-the-border issue.
She declared, "We're going to win this battle because while you try and quote the Bible, Jeff Sessions and others, you really don't know the Bible."
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She shouted, "God is on OUR side! On the side of the children. On the side of what's right. On the side of what's honorable."
Meanwhile, President Trump's supporters note that it's hard to hear Bible lessons from the likes of Maxine Waters and other members of her party, who have enthusiastically promoted policies that have resulted in the killing of millions of children through abortion. That's a permanent separation of parents and children.
As each side goes back and forth, proof-texting the Bible, a particular question comes to the fore. Are these children being used as essentially pawns in the whole immigration crisis?
Ironically, the United States has one of the most generous immigration policies of any nation on earth. So says Heritage Foundation scholar Hans von Spakovsky. But you wouldn't know it from all the recent headlines.
Von Spakovsky told me on my radio show that each year, America generously settles one million immigrants from other countries a year---more than any nation in the entire world. That is legal immigration.
The crisis involving the children being separated from their parents involves illegal immigration.
Von Spakovsky wrote an article for Heritage (6/22/18), in which he notes, "if those parents would simply agree to return to their home countries, they would be immediately reunited with their children. So those who come here illegally are themselves to blame for their children being assigned to foster care or to another family member or sponsor who may be in the country."
Of course, the media did not show the same type of wrenching images during the Obama administration because of what veteran broadcast journalist Bernard Goldberg called the "slobbering love affair" between the press and the 44th president. And they easily could have because the pictures are there---of alien children in fences, at the border.
Von Spakovsky argues that the Obama administration policies, which still haunt us to some degree, put children at the southern border in greater risk because of exploitation by those who would use them for their own agenda: "The Obama administration provided a huge incentive for illegal aliens to smuggle children across the border, since a child acted as a get-out-of-jail-free card for avoiding detention and prosecution for the adult accompanying the child. As the Department of Homeland Security correctly says, this policy 'incited smugglers to place children into the hands of adult strangers so they can pose as families and be released from immigration custody after crossing the border, creating another safety issue for these children.'" [Emphasis added]
So, what is best for the children? Surely not for parents to hand their children over to smugglers or traffickers to get them over the border.
The HHS reports that 83 percent of the children in their custody "arrived to the United States without a parent or guardian." Even when there are parents and children caught trying to sneak into the country, the separation of parent and children at this time is limited to 20 days.
Do you lock your door at night? I do. That doesn't make me heartless. Nor is America heartless by striving to seal the border to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in.
Rey Gonzalez, M.D., a candidate for the U. S. House of Representatives from Texas' 34th District, puts it this way: "My district is on the border with Mexico. Brownsville, Texas is a major port of entry for Mexico. Unfortunately, not all that crosses the border is legal or in America's best interest. Our Border Patrol does actually patrol the border. Against what, you ask? Against sex trafficking, against drugs, against illegal firearms. Captured terrorists have confessed they had plans to infiltrate our country through the southern border. The border issue is much more than just an immigration issue. It is a national security issue."
A poll from Rasmussen even found that "a majority of Americans blame illegal immigrant parents for the child crisis on the border over the U.S. government."
And the tragedy of all this is using children as pawns in the process. Gary Bauer of American Values observes (End of Day Report, 6/21/18): "In other words, these kids are victims. They are being exploited by illegal immigrants trying to sneak into the country."
