Come in, You Are Free to Stay!

John Moore/Getty Images

Come in, You Are Free to Stay!

‘People told me … if you go to the United States, your children can go to school.’ —Guatemalan mother

Central American newspapers are telling locals that if they make it into the United States, they will be allowed to stay—especially if they have relatives living in the U.S. The dream of a better life calls these people to make the long, dangerous trip through Mexico to the United States’ southern border.

Velma Santos, a 31-year-old Guatemalan mother detained at the border, told U.S. border agents that she came to the U.S. because she wanted Americans to help her. The lady knew of others who had come and not been sent home.

“In Guatemala, there is a lot of poverty,” Santos told the officers. “But here my daughters can go to school.” She hoped to join her husband, who is already in North Carolina.

One 14-year-old girl made the trip alone from the northern border of Guatemala to hopefully meet up with her mom in New York. The mom arrived illegally in the U.S. five years ago. The mother decided to send for her daughter because “if she gets across she can stay here, that is what you hear.”

The illegal immigrants have a point. With border facilities overwhelmed with immigrants, minors making the journey from Central America have largely been let go into the care of relatives in the U.S. The minors are issued a notice to appear in an immigration court at a later date, sometimes years into the future. Ninety percent of minors never appear for their court date.

The federal immigration courts have a backlog of 360,000 pending cases, which includes immigrant minors and adults. It will be years before the courts get around to deporting these minors. This problem will only get worse with the Border Patrol expecting to take in 90,000 minors this year and 142,000 in 2015.

Tom Homan, the official overseeing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ice) removal operations, admitted “it could take two years or it could take five years” before these minors come before an immigration judge.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte explained that since 2011, the ice has only removed fewer than 2,000 unaccompanied minors per year. Just the expected 90,000 minors crossing the border this year would take 45 years to deport.

“Last year we removed 1,800, but again as I said about the immigration courts: When we looked at all the unaccompanied alien children that were filed with the immigration court in the last five years, 87 percent of them are still in proceedings. We have no final orders,” Homan said.

Goodlatte said that unless U.S. President Barack Obama begins enforcing the border and a no illegal immigration policy, illegal immigrants will think they have a green light to enter the U.S.

The invasion of America by this foreign flood is transforming our society. Unless President Obama corrects the problem he exacerbated with his well politicized executive action not to deport illegal minors in the United States (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), the burden of illegal immigration will intensify.

Watch Stephen Flurry’s Trumpet DailyIllegal Immigration and the Transformation of America” and read Joel Hilliker’s article “President Obama Appeases Immigrants by Sidestepping Congress” to understand why America is facing this problem.