Starting in 2012, Economic crises and hostilities in Central America have lead to a surge of
unaccompanied children attempting to enter illegally into the United States.
This year an estimated 52,000, children from Central America alone will be apprehended
by border control.
And for the first time ever, more children are coming from Central American countries
than from Mexico.
Which matters, because Mexican children can be turned away at the border.
But Central American children have to be detained and processed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement,
which leaves them in US custody for extended periods of time.
And our current system is not set up to handle this high volume of minors.
It was built to process up to 8,000 children per year, and we can expect to see more than
6 times that number in 2014.
And this situation is not likely to change anytime soon.
Why?
Because politicians in the House of Representatives have little incentive to fix the problem.
Outgoing House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's recent loss in Virginia was largely due to
his support of Immigration reform, making elected officials more wary than ever to stand
behind this issue.
And everything I've said so far ignores the fact that the vast majority of Republicans
in the House come from districts where Latinos make up less than 20 percent of the population.
So there isn't much pressure on them to vote for immigration reform in the first place.
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