U.S. Representative Ron Kind
The problems with children crossing the southern U.S. border alone continue. Most of these children are being sent from central American countries, where living conditions are so bad that parents are sending their youngsters north hoping they get a better life.
The U.S. southern border has been flooded by illegal immigrants, and lawmakers from both parties are looking to send these children back to their families. President Obama was in Texas Wednesday, where he reiterated the need to send them home.
Congressman Ron Kind agrees, saying these children should be with their parents. “We need to be pursuing a family first policy. First, it’s wrong for those families to be sending their kids up by themselves to try to get them into the United States, so we’ve got to return them to their families. It’s an untenable policy to allow these countries to continue this.”
Kind says the present law requires the U.S. to handle these children in a certain way. “Right now, the President by law has to process these children in a compassionate fashion, and that’s why he’s making a request to Congress right now for some additional resources, so we can do that as quickly and as expeditiously as possible, and try to reunite these kids with the families that they left.”
As far as other people crossing the border illegally, Kind says America needs to pass a comprehensive immigration reform policy that makes sense. “I know some would just say secure the border and that’s it, but that leaves about twelve million undocumented workers unaccounted for in this country, and that’s going to be problematic, and it also doesn’t address the economic needs that we’re facing. I can’t tell you how many employers that I’ve heard from in Wisconsin including dairy producers who are concerned that if we move forward on a draconian immigration policy, they’re going to be out of business.”
Kind supports the Democrat-authored immigration package that passed the U.S. Senate but stalled in the House of Representatives.
(WSAU)