Thoughts On The Border

Note: This was a Facebook post partially in response to a post of a friend who seemed to be lamenting how our Nation is handling children who accompany adults who are engaged in illegally crossing our southern border.

Jim Ivy


I swore to myself that I would avoid making posts that involve politics. The knee-jerk reactions to the misleading media coverage and utterly unconscionable actions of politicians have led me to reconsider my oath. Below I share my own view of what is going on along our Southern border.
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______, you have a big heart. Sometimes parents harm their children by following their heart without regard to what is best for the child. When you hear the words "child" and "family", you associate them with yourself and your experience of child and family. That is inevitable, but not necessarily good.

These "families" have put their children into a situation that is basically abusive. They have exposed these children to challenging and inhospitable terrain where death is a strong possibility for strong and well-equipped adults. They have exposed these children to highly probable, death, rape, and slavery at the hands of mercenary criminals who value human life only as a commodity!

Would you do that to your children??? Remember, there are legal and safe ways that these adults could have chosen to enter and request sanctuary. They chose the illegal method instead and in doing so subjected these children to unimaginable danger and suffering.

Yes, some of these adults have possibly valid reasons for choosing to place these minors in the hands of the traffickers who see human life as a commodity. Some of these adults may have stories that justify their choice to break the law. Some may have heart-wrenching stories that would justify the fact that they chose to cross the border illegally instead of following the legal procedures to gain entry and apply for sanctuary.

But the fact remains that they chose to involve these children in an illegal and dangerous situation. To me, any responsible adult would act to remove these children from the control of the adults who placed them in those horrendous circumstances.

You see this as "inhumane". I see this as humanity operating at it's highest level! Our nation is offering safe-harbor to children by removing them from adults who are using the children for their own nefarious means. We separate the children from the abusers and then do what we can to ensure their safety, health, and well-being. Their "parents" will have a chance to present their "story", and if the story is worthy, they will be reunited with their child.

We may be able to adjust and improve our processes, but the fundamental impulse behind this is far from inhumane!