I have thoughts that aren't fit for facebook. So here you are.
Let me just say that separating children from their parents hurts. It hurts. It hurts everyone. It hurts CPS. It hurts the Border Patrol agents. It hurts. People, I believe, are mostly good. People, I believe, mostly have empathy. I believe it so much that when I am faced with people that do not have that gene, I am still surprised.
I hope I'm always surprised.
It hurts to separate children from their parents.
I live in Texas. I live in a state where every six weeks or so there are reports of human traffickers stalking places like Wal-Mart. There are new reports of vans full of "refugees" smuggled over the southern border about every week (here in Dallas, I bet in San Antonio its higher, definitely El Paso). It is a major, major, major problem.
You know what the vans are really, mostly full of? Women and children. Driven by a man. It's insane.
In border towns you can't let your children out alone. Because Coyotes (the gang kind) and drug smugglers kidnap them.
Are all the people crossing the southern border this way? No. Are they all seeking a better life? No. Are they all trying to get away from oppression and tyranny? No.
In Dallas you have 15 people living in two bedroom apartments. They all work. Some of them probably work two and three jobs. Some of them have children. But in most cases it's able bodied men living together and working tirelessly. I'd even say they probably work every hour they are awake.
They send every penny they don't need, home. They don't have iPhones. The don't have cable. They don't have 4k televisions and they don't have fancy cars. They don't have credit. They don't have bank accounts. They are paid cash. They work in construction, farms, clean homes, they stand on street corners and wait until a pick-up drives by and they ask for work.
This is in my town. It happens. I see it. Every day. I can show you the gas stations where they stand. Are they all illegal? I don't know. I would imagine some of them are legal but have records. I'd imagine some of them are legal and don't want the hassle of an HR process.
But I'd imagine 80% of them are illegal aliens.
Are they less human?
OF COURSE NOT.
But what started happening in 2014 sometime after DACA was that under age minors were sent - SENT - to make the horrible trek across the southern border, alone. In 2014 we had something like 30,000 minors picked up by border patrol in just one month. It's gotten exponentially worse.
And they - the traffickers, the drug cartels, the gangs - have found the loop hole that they can use to get their guns, drugs and members into the country.
We have a soft spot for children. As do all people.
Except gang members, drug traffickers and cartel leaders.
My parents live in Albuquerque where MS-13 is a real, real, real, real thing. There are parts of ABQ that police don't go. That people shouldn't go. A recent talk with a woman who works for Bimbo bakery HR ... she had to investigate an HR complaint at the ABQ plant and found that the man worked for MS-13 and was part of a large organization that was using Bimbo to get money and things across the country. She had to transcribe his phone conversations for the FBI and police.
She still has nightmares.
These are facts. These are things that are happening.
Also facts ... kids are being separated from their parents.
But when adults lie, when they are using kidnapped children to gain entry into the United States and then disappearing (90% never show up for their hearings and disappear into the interior) what are we supposed to do?
No really. What are we supposed to do?
In prior decades we understood that if you have no rules and no line that the line will get crossed and you'll have all sorts of criminal elements take advantage. Now, it seems, we don't want the line or the rules because one person might get wrongfully held for 20 days away from their children.
But how many kids are we willing to let be trafficked? One? two? A dozen? A hundred?
Are you willing to let one child be trafficked into this country as a human shield? I don't know where I fall.
There are people that don't want an enforced southern border. They mostly live north of it. And the politicians for sure live north of it, and they hate Texas and don't care about New Mexico or Arizona because not enough electoral votes for them to matter. California has seceded control of their state to amnesty planners and now they are changing demographically ...
Turns out law abiding citizens don't really care for sanctuary city policies that result in higher crime, lower property values, and crappier schools.
Coming into any country illegally and attempting to work and live is illegal in every civilized country in the world. Every one. You can not just cross from Germany into France and try to live and get a job. The military has bases all over the planet and if you want to see how strict they are about citizens only having jobs just ask a military spouse how hard it is to work (impossible) or even go to school (can not take a spot that would go to a citizen).
That extends to illegal aliens as well.
If you don't have borders you don't have a country. I care about whats happening to those kids in that I am devastated that adults are using them in this way. They should be eating cake and kicking balls and being cared for. Not dragged across the border so that their grandfather back in Mexico can get sent every dollar his son earns.
You know what the most eye opening part is ... they don't want to be citizens. They don't. They are Mexican. They are El Salvadorian, Colombian. They don't want to be American.
There is no more assimilation.
You can ask them. They will tell you. They want to live and work here for a time but they don't want to be citizens. They want benefits and such, but they don't want to apply for citizenship. Just leave them alone, you see. The younger kids may be different, but the men I have spoken with laugh at me.
I hate when the cost of things comes up in this debate ... without illegals the cost of goods would be so high! They do the work Americans won't do!
Even President Obama said ... "America is not a nation that accepts the hypocrisy of workers who mow our lawns, make our beds, clean out bedpans, with no chance ever to get right with the law."
It's abhorrent. I refuse to get into this debate with anyone when the highest aspiration you have for those crossing the border is a cheap lawn care and house cleaning service.
Since President Trump started limiting the visa work program I've had to pay more for both services ... and I'm glad. I pay a more expensive service to begin with. I don't have a single woman come to my house whom I give $60 cash to clean my four bedroom, four bath house.
I have no way of knowing if the folks working here are legal. I would never ever dream of asking. But I pay a service more money than most so that I can assuage my guilt and imagine they are paid a decent wage and have a SSN.
We have to start deterring the illegal crossings. We have to. Most especially the last five years surge of minors crossing. Read the accounts from border patrol agents of what they have seen crossing the border. It's awful.
And there are people on the other side of this debate that are in Mexico encouraging folks to cross. I do believe there are folks ignorant of the law when they cross. I do. I feel for them the most because they've been tricked.
So what's happening now with the separations ... "parents" put in quotes because they all aren't, we know this ... are crossing the river or over the border NOT through a port of entry. They are getting arrested. When they are arrested they try to claim they are seeking asylum.
Asylum is a word but it's also a legal word. And to actually claim asylum you have to go to a port of entry. These folks are crossing illegally not through a port of entry. When they do this they trigger a different system. They are now arrested for their crime and then the law has to work out the asylum part. This takes longer. If they went through a port of entry they'd be held together while it was verified that the child belongs to the parent etc.
Did Sessions sign a tough on border crossings rule? Yes.
Because the minor crossings is now an epidemic. It's awful. Kids are dying on the route and they are dying at the border. There's an entire stretch of desert south of Arizona where hundreds of people die a year. We can not have people crossing Mexico in such conditions. I can't imagine what they've endured. Mexico shouldn't be letting any of this happen either.
It's the height of American arrogance that we feel this a problem Americans can solve alone. Where is Mexico in this? They have a beautiful country with bountiful resources.
And here in America, apparently, we think it's so third world that we must allow anyone who lives there legal entry here. Because here it's so much better.
Arrogance.
The GDP of Mexico is $1 TRILLION. Canada is $1.5T. An economy that produces like that isn't exactly the Sudan.
But yet I'm to believe conditions are so bad that we must allow them to cross.
And let me stop you ... I know they aren't from Mexico. Most are asylum seekers from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.
And it's too dangerous for them in Mexico, so they have to come here.
Arrogance.
Read that whole article. This problem is complex. And it's not just ours. And if we don't want to be party to human trafficking, we have to separate, vet, and investigate some of what these people say.
And don't, don't, don't tell me it's a red herring or that isn't happening ... it is. Every day. Without illegal entry rules and regulations the wolves take advantage and the sheep are who suffer.
These "kids" and I'd put anyone under 25 in this category so young people let's say ... are at the greatest risk as they try to cross. The evil people know an easy mark. And it happens.
When I'm getting alerts about possible trafficking at our local stores ... don't tell me it isn't happening.
I don't like the separations.
Kids are separated from parents all the time. For good reasons and bad. It's not good. Ever. Ever. Ever. It's the hardest thing for a kid to ever have to endure. It's stressful. Its the hardest stress for a child.
But what if that child is drugged and doesn't speak English and can't tell you that the man he's with (that does speak English) isn't his father? And he's being sold as a day laborer to people in New Mexico/California?
What do we do?
Note:
I'll encourage thoughtful discussion. But if you just flat label me as an uncaring monster for wanting a border policy that actually works than don't bother. There are things to be debated and you can't do that by simply personally attacking. I don't think anyone that says the Trump Administration are demons for trying this approach is a bad person. I think they are misinformed on the severity of what we are facing. Central and South American violence is a problem so big I can't find a word for it. And American money - through gun and drug purchases - fuel it.
So what do we do?
Let me just say that separating children from their parents hurts. It hurts. It hurts everyone. It hurts CPS. It hurts the Border Patrol agents. It hurts. People, I believe, are mostly good. People, I believe, mostly have empathy. I believe it so much that when I am faced with people that do not have that gene, I am still surprised.
I hope I'm always surprised.
It hurts to separate children from their parents.
I live in Texas. I live in a state where every six weeks or so there are reports of human traffickers stalking places like Wal-Mart. There are new reports of vans full of "refugees" smuggled over the southern border about every week (here in Dallas, I bet in San Antonio its higher, definitely El Paso). It is a major, major, major problem.
You know what the vans are really, mostly full of? Women and children. Driven by a man. It's insane.
In border towns you can't let your children out alone. Because Coyotes (the gang kind) and drug smugglers kidnap them.
Are all the people crossing the southern border this way? No. Are they all seeking a better life? No. Are they all trying to get away from oppression and tyranny? No.
In Dallas you have 15 people living in two bedroom apartments. They all work. Some of them probably work two and three jobs. Some of them have children. But in most cases it's able bodied men living together and working tirelessly. I'd even say they probably work every hour they are awake.
They send every penny they don't need, home. They don't have iPhones. The don't have cable. They don't have 4k televisions and they don't have fancy cars. They don't have credit. They don't have bank accounts. They are paid cash. They work in construction, farms, clean homes, they stand on street corners and wait until a pick-up drives by and they ask for work.
This is in my town. It happens. I see it. Every day. I can show you the gas stations where they stand. Are they all illegal? I don't know. I would imagine some of them are legal but have records. I'd imagine some of them are legal and don't want the hassle of an HR process.
But I'd imagine 80% of them are illegal aliens.
Are they less human?
OF COURSE NOT.
But what started happening in 2014 sometime after DACA was that under age minors were sent - SENT - to make the horrible trek across the southern border, alone. In 2014 we had something like 30,000 minors picked up by border patrol in just one month. It's gotten exponentially worse.
And they - the traffickers, the drug cartels, the gangs - have found the loop hole that they can use to get their guns, drugs and members into the country.
We have a soft spot for children. As do all people.
Except gang members, drug traffickers and cartel leaders.
My parents live in Albuquerque where MS-13 is a real, real, real, real thing. There are parts of ABQ that police don't go. That people shouldn't go. A recent talk with a woman who works for Bimbo bakery HR ... she had to investigate an HR complaint at the ABQ plant and found that the man worked for MS-13 and was part of a large organization that was using Bimbo to get money and things across the country. She had to transcribe his phone conversations for the FBI and police.
She still has nightmares.
These are facts. These are things that are happening.
Also facts ... kids are being separated from their parents.
But when adults lie, when they are using kidnapped children to gain entry into the United States and then disappearing (90% never show up for their hearings and disappear into the interior) what are we supposed to do?
No really. What are we supposed to do?
In prior decades we understood that if you have no rules and no line that the line will get crossed and you'll have all sorts of criminal elements take advantage. Now, it seems, we don't want the line or the rules because one person might get wrongfully held for 20 days away from their children.
But how many kids are we willing to let be trafficked? One? two? A dozen? A hundred?
Are you willing to let one child be trafficked into this country as a human shield? I don't know where I fall.
There are people that don't want an enforced southern border. They mostly live north of it. And the politicians for sure live north of it, and they hate Texas and don't care about New Mexico or Arizona because not enough electoral votes for them to matter. California has seceded control of their state to amnesty planners and now they are changing demographically ...
Turns out law abiding citizens don't really care for sanctuary city policies that result in higher crime, lower property values, and crappier schools.
Coming into any country illegally and attempting to work and live is illegal in every civilized country in the world. Every one. You can not just cross from Germany into France and try to live and get a job. The military has bases all over the planet and if you want to see how strict they are about citizens only having jobs just ask a military spouse how hard it is to work (impossible) or even go to school (can not take a spot that would go to a citizen).
That extends to illegal aliens as well.
If you don't have borders you don't have a country. I care about whats happening to those kids in that I am devastated that adults are using them in this way. They should be eating cake and kicking balls and being cared for. Not dragged across the border so that their grandfather back in Mexico can get sent every dollar his son earns.
You know what the most eye opening part is ... they don't want to be citizens. They don't. They are Mexican. They are El Salvadorian, Colombian. They don't want to be American.
There is no more assimilation.
You can ask them. They will tell you. They want to live and work here for a time but they don't want to be citizens. They want benefits and such, but they don't want to apply for citizenship. Just leave them alone, you see. The younger kids may be different, but the men I have spoken with laugh at me.
I hate when the cost of things comes up in this debate ... without illegals the cost of goods would be so high! They do the work Americans won't do!
Even President Obama said ... "America is not a nation that accepts the hypocrisy of workers who mow our lawns, make our beds, clean out bedpans, with no chance ever to get right with the law."
It's abhorrent. I refuse to get into this debate with anyone when the highest aspiration you have for those crossing the border is a cheap lawn care and house cleaning service.
Since President Trump started limiting the visa work program I've had to pay more for both services ... and I'm glad. I pay a more expensive service to begin with. I don't have a single woman come to my house whom I give $60 cash to clean my four bedroom, four bath house.
I have no way of knowing if the folks working here are legal. I would never ever dream of asking. But I pay a service more money than most so that I can assuage my guilt and imagine they are paid a decent wage and have a SSN.
We have to start deterring the illegal crossings. We have to. Most especially the last five years surge of minors crossing. Read the accounts from border patrol agents of what they have seen crossing the border. It's awful.
And there are people on the other side of this debate that are in Mexico encouraging folks to cross. I do believe there are folks ignorant of the law when they cross. I do. I feel for them the most because they've been tricked.
So what's happening now with the separations ... "parents" put in quotes because they all aren't, we know this ... are crossing the river or over the border NOT through a port of entry. They are getting arrested. When they are arrested they try to claim they are seeking asylum.
Asylum is a word but it's also a legal word. And to actually claim asylum you have to go to a port of entry. These folks are crossing illegally not through a port of entry. When they do this they trigger a different system. They are now arrested for their crime and then the law has to work out the asylum part. This takes longer. If they went through a port of entry they'd be held together while it was verified that the child belongs to the parent etc.
Did Sessions sign a tough on border crossings rule? Yes.
Because the minor crossings is now an epidemic. It's awful. Kids are dying on the route and they are dying at the border. There's an entire stretch of desert south of Arizona where hundreds of people die a year. We can not have people crossing Mexico in such conditions. I can't imagine what they've endured. Mexico shouldn't be letting any of this happen either.
It's the height of American arrogance that we feel this a problem Americans can solve alone. Where is Mexico in this? They have a beautiful country with bountiful resources.
And here in America, apparently, we think it's so third world that we must allow anyone who lives there legal entry here. Because here it's so much better.
Arrogance.
The GDP of Mexico is $1 TRILLION. Canada is $1.5T. An economy that produces like that isn't exactly the Sudan.
But yet I'm to believe conditions are so bad that we must allow them to cross.
And let me stop you ... I know they aren't from Mexico. Most are asylum seekers from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.
And it's too dangerous for them in Mexico, so they have to come here.
Arrogance.
Read that whole article. This problem is complex. And it's not just ours. And if we don't want to be party to human trafficking, we have to separate, vet, and investigate some of what these people say.
And don't, don't, don't tell me it's a red herring or that isn't happening ... it is. Every day. Without illegal entry rules and regulations the wolves take advantage and the sheep are who suffer.
These "kids" and I'd put anyone under 25 in this category so young people let's say ... are at the greatest risk as they try to cross. The evil people know an easy mark. And it happens.
When I'm getting alerts about possible trafficking at our local stores ... don't tell me it isn't happening.
I don't like the separations.
Kids are separated from parents all the time. For good reasons and bad. It's not good. Ever. Ever. Ever. It's the hardest thing for a kid to ever have to endure. It's stressful. Its the hardest stress for a child.
But what if that child is drugged and doesn't speak English and can't tell you that the man he's with (that does speak English) isn't his father? And he's being sold as a day laborer to people in New Mexico/California?
What do we do?
Note:
I'll encourage thoughtful discussion. But if you just flat label me as an uncaring monster for wanting a border policy that actually works than don't bother. There are things to be debated and you can't do that by simply personally attacking. I don't think anyone that says the Trump Administration are demons for trying this approach is a bad person. I think they are misinformed on the severity of what we are facing. Central and South American violence is a problem so big I can't find a word for it. And American money - through gun and drug purchases - fuel it.
So what do we do?
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