Fate of the Displaced Children from the South

Long before I started writing in blog format, I traveled the world.  One of my destinations was Guatemala City upon more than one occasion.

I heard rumors that the police there were harassing youth gangs.  More than harassing, I heard they would round up a bunch of these wayward kids and shoot them dead.  To be sure, kids were a menace downtown to businesses.  They would haunt the bus stations wanting food and money from bus passengers.  They plagued local establishments, as they committed vandalism and theft from customers and store-owners alike including fast food restaurants.  But though I saw some of their public acts in the course of their being pests, even to cars in traffic, I never saw, though heard about this police and military alleged response.

I would stay at the International Hotel downtown, so I was indeed witness to some things. But what is more, I saw and talked with Catholic nuns, whom I took to be concerned for these children's well-being.  But I was not writing tomes at the time and had more pressing items of concern and so paid little attention to the question, what could be done to help these children, other than assuming that the Catholics could try to help them?

However, since the current flood of kids coming up from via Mexico, I became grateful that the US is doing something good.  You know the Republicans are probably right--this social problem in Central America--Honduras, Guatemala, etc. has been going on for years; but I never thought that the US could do something on behalf of these street kids.  Truly, they are here in the US  as displaced persons with no home and no hope; and must come with fear of being murdered should they be left in their native land, even as so many have come to meet that fate over the years, so I have heard.  Moreover, maybe some good will come from the President's conversations with the Central American Presidents

In any case, these children represent no threat to the US security, and it is preposterous to permit them to fall in the hands of a national guard unit, as Governor Perry is advocating, or to treat them as likely criminals here, despite whatever misdemeanors they have committed in their homelands.

Should they be permitted to stay in the US, I am confident that most will become law-abiding and prosperous members of the communities in which they will grow up and mature.

Incidentally, should we not thank the many philanthropic organizations that are sponsoring them once they are accepted on our US shores?  The President has asked for $4 billion but due to the generosity of Americans, these children are being welcomed and accepted, in a land foreign to them but in which they have come to trust and believe in, largely due to the reception and treatment they are receiving on our shores!  Really, again the Republicans are right:  there need be no federal special grants meted out to these Hispanic-born displaced children, for they have already been welcomed and American hospitality provided them.

You say, how about the extra social services they impose upon the already over-burdened social agencies and educational systems throughout the country.  Frankly, the numbers of them are minuscule compared to the numbers of refugees that Jordan and Turkey have had to accept as the Syrian war continues.  We must do our share to overcome the disasters of human abuse and death that plague the planet; no one is asking for saintly effort, just serious efforts to show compassion and concern for our fellow men, women and children.