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Over the past few weeks, I've listened to the news reports and our representatives discuss the human tragedy in Texas, where tens of thousands of children are risking their lives to cross the desert and our border to get into the United States.
The reason that this is a tragedy, is because precious human lives are being played with like a ping-pong game.
Whether we like it or not, for many years the USA has been sending the message that immigrants are welcome. Most of these children probably have other relatives who came into our country illegally and are living lives better than they could at home; that is why they stay here. The stories they hear are about how rich American is and how much better life is in America. Considering the poverty and violence in most of Central America, those stories are true!
Children don't usually understand that there is a process. They simply see where they are, and where they want to be, and then go there. I blame their guardians for neglecting to tell them information that would keep them protected.
When a child is in a grocery checkout and grabs at a piece of candy, they are too young to realize that it has to be paid for. If the child sticks the candy in their mouth, we don't put them in prison as a thief. We hold their parent responsible to teach them that it is wrong to steal. Using children to commit theft is itself a crime of its own.
By allowing these kids to make the dangerous and illegal journey here, the parents, guardians, or other relatives of these children back home are committing that crime.
My heart is upset that we are unable to help protect these children from their own corrupt, poverty-stricken countries. Because the USA is not economically strong any longer, we are also not able to assist the countries that these people are coming from.
It is emotionally frustrating to hear about children risking their lives, only to come to a country that cannot help them.
Someone needs to communicate to the world that the USA cannot help in the way it used to, or the way other countries think it should. Although we have much to offer, our economy is strained and we cannot permit immigration of people that are only able to take and not to give.
Our Senate is talking about spending $2 billion to take care of these children. That sounds very nice, but where is the money going to come from? I don't have the money; you don't have the money; and our government doesn't either. Should we really borrow money from the Chinese only to spend it on people from another country who are not our problem?
Abraham Lincoln said, "You cannot make the poor rich by making the rich poor." Compared to the rest of the world, America is rich, but we are not so rich that we can make everyone else in the world also rich. They have to earn it for themselves as South Korea has done and India and China are doing. Nothing else will give them the resources to take care of the borderless children.