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Cornyn advocates placement of unaccompanied immigrant kids with family or sponsors
As thousands of undocumented, unaccompanied, young people continue pouring across America's southern border, the challenge is no longer how to stop them, but rather how to safely process and place them. FOX 26 Reporter Greg Groogan has more.
HOUSTON - As thousands of undocumented, unaccompanied, young people continue pouring across America's southern border, the challenge is no longer how to stop them, but rather how to safely process and place them.
With that focus at the forefront, Texas Senator John Cornyn consulted with Houston child advocates after first touring a Catholic Charities shelter full to normal capacity with underage refugees.
"It's almost like everyone in the neighborhood is working together to put out a fire, but the fire is overwhelming the capacity of the neighborhood to put it out. They understand that if they can make it here, they will probably get to stay here and that is an enormous pull factor that we need to balance out to make this a safer and more humane process," said Cornyn.
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Cornyn says drug cartels are exploiting the ongoing surge with a classic diversion - forcing U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to contend with young immigrants and creating unprotected avenues for smugglers to move narcotics with relative ease.
Call it the "collateral damage" of what many see as purely, an immigration crisis.
"We just can't put out the welcome mat for anybody and everybody who wants to come to the United States, because we will be overwhelmed and that's what we are seeing happen right now," said Cornyn.
As for the thousands of children who've made the perilous journey to America, most are certain to remain. Both Senator Cornyn and child advocate Dr. Bob Sanborn insist the best course is to quickly connect as many kids as possible with family already living in the U.S.
"They've had a lot of trauma coming here. We need to not further traumatize them. Take care of them right now. Get them back to a semblance of normal life," said Sanborn, leader of Children at Risk.
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Sanborn says that when undocumented, immigrant children receive competent legal counsel, most are eventually granted some form of legal status.