Unintended Consequences

While President Obama celebrates the chaos that is the result of his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA), I doubt that most of the people who sympathize with the plight of illegal aliens are aware of the harmful consequences of what seems to be compassion.   Real people, many of them children, are in harm’s way because they have been misled into believing that they will receive “permisos” and be allowed to stay in the United States.

The danger goes far beyond the strain on US Border Patrol due to this year’s abrupt change in numbers and demographics:

• Southwest border apprehensions: (Oct. 1- May 31) 323,675, a 15 percent increase from fiscal year 2013.

• Rio Grande Valley (South Texas) border apprehensions: (Oct. 1-May 31) 163,542, a 74 percent increase from fiscal year 2013.

• Southwest border apprehensions of Other-than-Mexican citizens: (Oct. 1 – May 31) 162,757, 50 percent of the total Southwest border apprehensions.

• Rio Grande Valley (South Texas) border apprehensions of Other-than-Mexican citizens: (Oct. 1-May 31) 122,070, 75 percent of total Rio Grande Valley apprehensions.

It even goes beyond the danger to us all from diseases entering the Country, like rabies that killed a man from Guatemala last year (after he had been in several holding facilities and two hospitals),  drug-resistant tuberculosis found in a man from Asia last year and other illnesses that result from close quarters with poor hygiene.

The men, women and children from Guatemala, El Salvador and other countries who risk death on the ride in and on top of “La Bestia,”  in order to (illegally) cross Mexico report extortion, rape and physical abuse by the Mexican Federal police and the cartels.  Others aren’t that lucky:

Mexico’s Human Rights Commission estimates that at least 20,000 migrants get kidnapped every year in Mexico, often with the assistance of local police or other officials. The gangs hold the migrants and demand hundreds or even thousands of dollars for their release.

Then, the children are tagged “UAC’s” (Unaccompanied Alien Children) and shipped all over the country to what amounts to “undisclosed locations.” State and local Child Protective Services are not allowed to see the children or investigate the conditions they’re held in, because of Federal bureaucrats. The response to a recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of minors who were abused in government “shelters” seems to be a ban on transparency, imposed on the Border Patrol agents and the caseworkers taking care of the children. Because of the surge, 90% of the children are now released to the custody of non-relative sponsors when the parents can’t be found , and then lost to follow up:  “Only 40 percent of those accused of being in the United States illegally ever show up for court, according to former federal immigration Judge Mark Metcalf.”

The abuse and danger are likely to follow them where ever they try to find work and a place to live.  I was doctor to one family who was still trying to qualify for the 1986 Reagan amnesty through 1998, although everyone in their families knew the couple didn’t meet the criteria of that amnesty. They had children who were born in Texas, but a Houston lawyer convinced them that registering the births or applying for Medicaid would endanger their status. (Perhaps it was more the thousands of dollars they paid him each year?).  They couldn’t afford a place to live and couldn’t get a good job because of their status. I doubt that the system is any  better, even with Obama’s DACA and his Administration’s dismissal of thousands of immigration cases.

Repeating the mistakes of the past, even out of compassion, only puts more of those we would help in danger.