The Odyssey of Undocumented Children

Barack Obama has asked Congress to grant him additional funds to deal with the influx of undocumented immigrants who are entering American territory through Mexico. The billions, if he gets them, will serve both to strengthen controls at the border and to feed and care for undocumented immigrants, especially children, as they wait for the justice system to decide their fate.

More and more often, it is unaccompanied children who knock on the door of the American promised land. About 50,000 of them have been stopped at the American-Mexican border since October 2013. That is twice as many as during the same period last year. They mostly come from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, fleeing poverty and violence, especially street gangs. They often have relatives in the United States. Their parents get them started on this dangerous journey because a rumor circulating in Central America says that requests for asylum from minors are almost always accepted.

The debate rages among our neighbors to the south. Should all children who enter illegally from the Mexican border be deported? How should this be done and how quickly? Immigrant support groups are against a quick deportation, whereas most elected Republicans, as well as a good number of Democrats, want to send a strong message of deterrence to potential illegal immigrants, precisely to clear up the rumor that people can waltz right into the United States.

The number of children crossing the American-Mexican border has considerably grown since spring. American authorities have been forced to put hundreds of people on military bases or in large shut-down warehouses. In California and elsewhere, convoys of children have been greeted by protesters who wish to informally push the group of children back towards the south.

The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, considers the influx of undocumented children a threat to national security. Of course, this right-wing politician has talked about the “humanitarian crisis,” following the example of President Obama, but he advocates the broad and rapid return of the children to their home countries. He says he fears epidemics and warns against the infiltration of drug cartel members. Some of the children are barely three years old.

The conservative circle of influence blames Barack Obama’s government for having shifted toward a more welcoming attitude toward the unaccompanied children. The numbers support them, according to The New York Times, which is not even an anti-immigration newspaper. They are pushing back children less willingly than before. The immigration law reform proposed by the president forecasts a procedure allowing undocumented people to become citizens and a more generous welcome for children arriving in the country, in exchange for reinforcing the border. This reform is blocked in Congress.

Europe is grappling with a migratory phenomenon even more important and dramatic. At least 2,600 migrants were received last weekend off the coast of Sicily. Among them were pregnant women and children. Since the beginning of the year, some 63,000 migrants fleeing war and poverty have reached Italy from North Africa. This record number is higher than the 62,000 recorded in 2011 during the Arab Spring. Most of them land on the island of Lampedusa. Since the middle of the 1990s, about 20,000 more migrants have perished at sea.

In a report, Amnesty International has condemned the fact that Europe is transforming itself into a fortress that doesn’t welcome newcomers except in dribs and drabs. This closure to legitimate immigration forces potential immigrants to reach the continent by illegal and dangerous means.

The frontline countries, especially Italy, Spain, Greece and Malta, regularly complain that compared to their EU partners they carry too much of the illegal immigration burden.

There are the same issues in the Antipodes. In Australia, where the conservative government prides itself on having ended the arrival of boats filled with undocumented migrants, the coast guard forced a boat to return to Sri Lanka, from which the 40-odd people had come seeking a better and safer life than the one a country which has had trouble coming out of a long civil war can offer. The procedure was criticized by the Australian Supreme Court, which forbid the government from sending back the 150-some people found on board a second boat, at least until their applications for asylum had been heard in hearings worthy of that name.