This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

In Case You Missed It: The Border Crisis

There’s a line from the movie, “The Sixth Sense,” that I’ve seen mimicked for other scenarios; one version has appeared at my work place and goes like this: “I see dumb people…and they work here.”

 

Seriously though, with all the hub-bub about the disaster taking place on our southern border, it’s past time to clear the air about something: Compassion.

Find out what's happening in Gloucester Townshipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 

A number of individuals are using the argument that the only compassionate thing to do in the current situation is to let the massive influx of children from south of Mexico stay and, in fact, welcome more. The argument goes that it is a humanitarian issue and they are refugees.

Find out what's happening in Gloucester Townshipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 

If you want refugees, there are plenty of more places you can go to get them where the circumstances make life in Central America look tame but I don’t see anybody scurrying to bring those people here.

 

Regardless of the situation, some, who possibly don’t feel the refugee argument is strong enough have fallen back on pointing to a law that they say does not allow us to send these children back from whence they came. They say that the law only allows instant return of illegal, oops, sorry, undocumented immigrants if they came here from Mexico or Canada. Anybody beyond those areas is required to be held and given a hearing as to their fate.

 

On top of that, certain Democrats, in nothing more than a partisan play for votes, make note that the law was put in place by George Bush so Republicans who think the situation should be handled differently are basically being told to shut up and stand down.

 

So, we’re talking about H.R. 7311, passed by the 110th Congress on 12/10/2008, and signed into law by then president George Bush on 12/23/2008. H.R. 7311 is otherwise known as the “William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008.” You can read the text here.

 

To understand what’s going on, we first need to know who William Wilberforce was and why the bill was named after him. William Wilberforce was an English politician who lived from 1759 until 1833. Wilberforce was the Independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire, England. In all, Wilberforce served in Parliament from 1784 until 1825. In 1787, after an evangelical conversion, Wilberforce became a lifelong abolitionist and headed the English movement to abolish slavery in the UK. He labored in Parliament for twenty-six years until passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. After resigning from Parliament due to failing health, Wilberforce continued to work for the complete abolition of slavery. His campaign ultimately led to the complete abolishment of Slavery in most of the British Empire through the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. Wilberforce died three days after hearing that passage of the Abolition Act through Parliament was assured.

Thus we have the connection to Wilberforce and slavery; this is important to our understanding of the current Act under discussion – the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 – because it is all about slavery under the guise of Sex Trafficking. Some of the Titles in the Act are noteworthy:

TITLE I--COMBATING INTERNATIONAL TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS

TITLE II--SUBTITLE B--ASSISTANCE FOR TRAFFICKING VICTIMS

TITLE IV--CHILD SOLDIERS PREVENTION

 

It appears to me, and from what I can understand from others who seem to have a better grasp of the situation than me and most others, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 has to do with persons who are brought here against their will, or otherwise misled about why they are coming, and mainly for the purpose of human trafficking which ultimately ends up with them being lost in the sex trade.

 

I fail to see how the majority of children coming across the border from Central America fit this model. That being the case, our president and his administration have every right to round these individuals up, save a very few, and return them from whence they originated.

 

Maybe you have read or heard about the latest boondoggle in this case where the US government was set to award the Baptist Child and Family Services an amount of $50 million dollars to purchase the Palm Aire Hotel and Suites Resort in Weslaco, TX, and transform the site into a temporary holding station for 600 “illegal alien children.” It has everything an illegal alien child would want including an Olympic-sized indoor pool, an outdoor pool, free Wi-Fi and cable TV…it’s a resort, of course it has all of that and more. Wisely, Baptist Child and Family Services backed away from this scheme. The report goes: “Due to backlash the charity received after the story was posted on The Drudge Report, Baptist Child and Family Services withdrew its bid for the Palm Aire Resort.” Additionally, it was reported here that ‘the charity was disappointed because the resort would have been perfect for the illegal alien children.’ You don’t say?

 

In the face of such an outrageous scheme coupled with the $3.7 billion dollars that Mr. Obama has asked for to deal with the influx of children, Americans are asking, “What about our children?” The question arises as to how much of this money will actually be spent in stemming the flow of illegals as opposed to spending it to house, feed, and permanently place those entering the country illegally, thus encouraging the influx to continue unabated. One then rightly asks what we are doing for the homeless children already here.

 

Back to the beginning; compassion or not, we are a land of laws and those laws must be followed to keep order. If the laws are deficient then change them. With the National Debt north of $17 trillion dollars and growing, it is time to accept the fact that we are out of money.



We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?