Unaccompanied Minors, Illegal Aliens, the Asylum Scam, and the Opioid Crisis

            The hysteria over “separating children” of illegal alien families is revelatory of a deepening divide in the country based on shifting demographics and the further radicalization of the media and the Democrat Party.  The policy of separating children from their parents is not new. It is based on rules that precede the Trump administration.  Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton followed it.  But only under Trump have such measures been likened to “Nazi concentration camps,” or “Japanese internment centers.”             

                  Separation occurs when officials find that the adult is falsely claiming to be the parent, is a danger to the child, or is placed in criminal proceedings.  The difference is that adults who came as part of a family unit were previously allowed to enter the country pending legal outcomes.  Under Trump, as part of his “zero tolerance policy,” all adults are prosecuted to communicate that this administration is serious about enforcing our laws.  It is also complicated by the changing nature of illegal entry into the country across the southern border.  Previously, mainly young males from Mexico had driven it. Now thanks to DACA, sanctuary cities, “catch and release,” the “asylum” scam, and the promise of amnesty under the Obama administration, the migration has shifted to women, children, and “family units,” as they are treated more leniently. 

                   The controversies manufactured by the left must be unpacked.  To begin, however sympathetic illegal alien children and family units may seem, they were not forced to enter the country.  They can stay in their own country.  It’s not our fault that their countries are dysfunctional.  Many countries are dysfunctional.  Billions of people live in failed nations.  There are a handful of Western nations and nations in East Asia that are successful.  Being dysfunctional is a normal state of affairs for most countries. 

                  When a US citizen commits a crime he will be detained by law enforcement.  If he has children, he will be separated since no child is placed in adult detention centers.  This is what happens to American citizens when they go to jail. Why should we privilege foreigners?

                  The cost of caring for Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) is substantial.  According to the Washington Times, HHS paid over $1.4 billion last year to care for nearly 41,000 UACs in its facilities, who stayed 41 days on average, costing taxpayers about $670 per day for each child.

                  We often don’t know if the children being “ripped” from their parents are the actual parents and have actual family ties.  In 2008, for example, DNA tests on refugees from African countries who claimed to be families showed that the rate of fraud was so high the refugee program from these countries had to be suspended.  

                  The flood of fraudulent asylum claims is another problem.  It imposes great burdens on our limited resources. According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 90% of asylum seekers are rejected.  The asylum claims from Central America are up 800% in the past six years with a backlog of 300,000 cases because of the promise of amnesty and catch and release.

                  It is reasonable to question the morality of parents and families who would take or send their children on such a dangerous journey from Central America through Mexico.  Many children face abuse including rape, assault, theft, and murder. Some parents give their children over to smugglers for profit.   Some migrants take children who are not their own, using them as bargaining chips. 

                  It is American policies regarding immigration that are behind the wild surges in illegal alien entry into the country in recent years from Mexico and Central America including children and adults - not persecution.  Drug cartels and their “coyotes” control all movements of migrants and profit enormously by these surges.  Migrants are used as diversions to allow more high value illegals to enter the country.  Many are used as “drug mules” themselves smuggling illicit drugs into the country.  By tying up ICE resources with illegal entry betweenports of entry criminals, human traffickers, and drug smugglers can pass readily through regular ports of entry.  

                  From 2012-2014, UACs from Central American countries increased by 490,444, or 610% driven by Obama era policies.  Ninety five percent of illegal border crossers cited the promise of amnesty as the main reason behind immigration not violence back home.  (They are not refugees or victims of persecution but economic and welfare migrants.) This incentivized parents to send children, hire coyotes, and pay off drug cartels and smugglers.  Drug mules and human traffickers paid record funds.  The poppy fields of Mexican drug cartels tripled from 2013-2016.  The UACs also served as recruits for MS 13 and other illegal alien criminal gangs.  

                  The increased flows of UACs and “family units” are responsible for the “opioid crisis.” It is UACs and other illegal aliens serving as either diversions for other smugglers or drug mules themselves bringing in heroin, fentanyl, meth, cocaine, and other illicit drugs manufactured by drug lords in Mexico.  It is a billion dollar industry that accounted for three fourths of the more than 60,000 drug related deaths of Americans in 2016.  It is not doctors legitimately prescribing pain medicine for postoperative patients, cancer victims, or chronic pain patients that is behind the crisis.  It is an epidemic based on illegal drugs produced in Mexico and brought into the country and distributed by migrants from Mexico and Central America. 

                  It is necessary to expose the immorality of the open borders, anti-ICE, anti-American left by demonstrating the costs to Americans and to illegal aliens.  The solutions to this crisis are straightforward.  We must end all cross border immigration.  Asylum seekers must apply at US embassies and consulates in Mexico and Central America, not on American soil.  A wall should be built.  We must expand interior enforcement, end sanctuary cities and catch and release, and begin deporting illegal aliens, particularly violent criminals. Federal court jurisdiction over immigration must be removed.  We must make it clear to Mexico and Central American nations that we will no longer tolerate them sending their criminals, unemployed, and impoverished to our country.  It is up to them to reform their own failed states.  Nobody has a claim to our shores without our consent. 

August 14, 2018

Dr. Richard Moss is a board certified head and neck cancer surgeon and was a candidate for Congress in 2016 and 2018. He graduated from the Indiana University School of Medicine and has been in practice in Jasper and Washington, IN for over 20 years. He is married with four children.  

For more information visit richardmossmd.com. Find Richard Moss, M.D. on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.