Kids escaping hell
by digby
Vox has produced a nice explainer on the child immigration story that simply lays out the controversy and statistics if you aren’t familiar with the details. What is most pertinent from my perspective is the question of why these unaccompanied children are coming here in greater numbers than before.
The miserable right wing misanthropes see these kids as Machiavellian mini-criminals who are just trying to get over on us hard working Americans. Sober people point out that there are a lot of reasons for the wave, but that one inescapable fact is that violence in these countries is exploding and these kids are basically running for their lives. They aren’t “illegals.” They’re refugees.
How do we know this? They aren’t just coming to the land ‘o the free to eat our McDonalds and steal our health care. They’re seeking asylum everywhere:
[N]earby countries — including Mexico, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama — saw 712 percent more applications for asylum from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador in 2013 than they had in 2009:
Also too: they’re kids. Are we really talking about sending children back to hell to appease a bunch of xenophobes?