“Let us not turn away these children and send them back into a burning building.” – Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) MSNBC 7/23/14
Fact Check: In this instance Pelosi is referring to the illegal alien “children” coming across our border from Central America. This is how the media commonly describe them, and those shown on TV are pre-teens. But the reality is that the overwhelming majority of these arrivals are teenagers, rather than children. A new Pew Research report using government figures found that teens are 84 percent of the so-called “children” arriving since last October.
The use of the word “children” by the media and politicians like Pelosi is clearly designed to manipulate sentiment against enforcing our immigration laws. After all, we’re led to believe, they’re all just little kids, and only a heartless ogre would turn them away.
And why are these youths coming? One reason is that President Obama’s unilateral decree of legal status for young illegal aliens in the Dream Act category has spread the impression throughout Central America that if you’re under twenty, and you cross our border, you can’t be deported. The lesson of past amnesties repeats itself again: If you reward lawbreaking, you encourage more of it.
Another possible reason is that human and drug traffickers promote the exodus of “children” as a means to enhance their profits and facilitate their operations. Taking care of the “children” has significantly diverted the Border Patrol from its task of securing the border. One issue seldom discussed in the media is that the young migrants themselves are involved in criminal activities. In one instance, authorities determined that 16 of the youths in one detention center were members of the notorious MS 13 gang.
According to open border advocates, the “children” are coming because they fear violence in their homes countries. This is the “burning building” to which Pelosi metaphorically refers. But what evidence is there that violence in Central America has increased in recent years? One significant statistic is that the murder rate in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras has decreased since 2012.
A government study based on Interviews of Central American migrants found that the overwhelming majority of them did not leave for fear of violence. The primary reason they gave for coming, once again, was the belief that they could legally remain in the U.S. Many said they came to attain better economic conditions and reunite with family members.
Manipulating sympathy is a standard tactic of open border advocates, typically Republicans who want cheap labor and democrats who want cheap votes. It doesn’t matter to them that they cheapen discussion of the crucial issue of immigration.