The current situation at our borders that involves unaccompanied children crossing our border has its roots in two US laws passed under George W. Bush. The first is the Homeland Security Act of 2002 which transferred the power to care for these individuals from INS to ORR (the Office of in the Department of Health and Human Services). So, it became an issue of public health as opposed to immigration.
The second law was the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 which was passed to combat human trafficking. The New York Times has a great piece on this legislation that honestly makes conservative criticism and calls to boot children out look, at best, silly and worst, inhumane. I would imagine that very few conservatives realized that these laws were passed under Republican administrations and were passed with good reason.
Many of these children are in great distress and if we are to be the beacon of liberty and freedom in the world, we must help them. This was indeed the compassionate conservatism of George W Bush seen also in his direct aid to Africa which honestly shifted disease and lifespan on that continent to considerably high degree.
Perhaps it is this compassion that has the conservatives of today apoplectic. They shriek about how "it's the law" and that illegals should deported immediately but the law as it stands today says something much different than their howls and imperial declarations. Perhaps the next time they open their mouths and accuse someone of only following the law when it suits them, they should stop and go look in the mirror.
More importantly, they should recognize that the problem of immigration is the deepest shade of gray of pretty much all of the issues we face today. Their simplistic and xenophobic solution needs to be ejected from the capsule (along with the adolescent insecurity of wanting the other side to always lose) and replaced with reality based initiatives that actually solve the problem. Of course, that's being kind in even saying that they have a solution because it's all still just empty criticism.
I wonder if we will ever see a return to compassionate conservatism.
4 comments:
illegals should deported immediately
Strawman.
There's a big difference between deporting and ...uuuuhhmm not deporting.
So, it became an issue of public health as opposed to immigration.
No, the issue was still the same, it was just a different part of the govt that had the responsibility to deal with it. You just couldn't be more retarded about the nature of govt and society, could you?
I wonder if we will ever see a return to compassionate conservatism.
After all of your caterwauling about Bush you have the gall to want a return to Bush's signature stupidity? Good god almighty that speaks volumes.
Maybe the EPA can be called in to halt illegal dumping?
Maybe would could transfer authority for it from HHS to the Smithsonian, then somehow it could just magically become a matter of history....
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