Children being protected not controversial
I suppose it is easier for us to simply pass (ill-informed) judgment on the parents and say that they should have come here legally or that they should have stayed in their home country. But that doesn’t change the fact that their children are suffering. Of course, some argue that “children of illegals are illegals” and therefore not worthy of our assistance. However, under US law, persons born in the US are generally considered US citizens.
It’s interesting that the same people who demand strict adherence to the law regarding “illegal aliens” suddenly feel free to ignore the law when it comes to the US-born children of those aliens.
Bottom line—our treatment of children says a lot about who we are as a country and we should try to prevent the needless suffering of children *even if* their parents have done something wrong.
This letter has not been edited.
Actually, this issue says less about the US as a country than it does about how illegals have so thoroughly worn out their welcome here.
Posted by on November 7, 2007 02:16 PMThe parents are asked several times during the interviews if they have children and if there is someone at home to care for the children. They are not 'abandoned' by law enforcement. Parents have denied having children, even when admitting it would mean staying in the US until they have a hearing. It is not the big bad government putting these children in harms way it is their parents.
Posted by mickey on November 7, 2007 02:35 PMMr. Buono has a very good point. We need to change the law so that being born in the United States of non-citizen parents does not constitute automatic citizenship.
This is an easy one. Pass it and worry about the rest later. I don't know why it failed before.
Posted by bjs on November 7, 2007 02:56 PMThe children were taken care of. The group(s) that reported this "finding" are pro-illegal immigrants. If anyone should be considering the consequences of these raids it should be those who employ illegal immigrants, not those who enforce the law.
Posted by Stan B on November 7, 2007 03:06 PMthose are some fine Christian values
Posted by on November 7, 2007 03:09 PMI am an Athiest. I believe that we should obey the letter of the law.
Posted by mickey on November 7, 2007 04:10 PMExcellent post, Paul.
Posted by Truth on November 7, 2007 04:20 PMI too agree that this is an excellent letter Mr.Buono. But I don't think we should stop there. What about the children of murderers, rapists, thieves, drug addicts, prostitutes, mentally ill, impoverished, imprisoned, dead-beats, doorknobs, tools, and fools? The destructive life their parent(s) lead is not the fault of the children, is it? Should we not have an awareness of these children as well? To support them, and do everything that we can to attempt to ensure a successful life?
Should we not focus on the children of those who may have lost parent(s) due to crimes committed by those above, or those who may have lost parents who serve in the Armed Forces as a priority?
Where and how do we draw the line, and who is responsible for assuring the care for these children? Do we leave it up to Child Services here in Colorado? They have done a bang up job so far, haven't they? Or do we think that what happened to
Chandler Grafner is an anomaly?
You pose a very caring but ultimately simplistic question. How can taking care of children affected by the actions of their guardians be controversial? Well, compassionately it shouldn't be. But the reality of it is, it very much is controversial. There is such a thing called finite resources (people, places, funding, and time). And those finite resources are stretched as is, which is why PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY must be the main focus, including responsibility for actions that may involve catastrophic consequences to one's family.
Your premise is valid. Your concern is commendable. Your compassion, inspiring. But maybe the focus should be in the education of the parents that continue to expose their children to suffering because of disregard for US law?
Posted by Dan2 on November 7, 2007 04:51 PMbjs,
Good luck with that. It would not be as simple as creating or changing a law, but would involve a Constitutional Amendment repealing parts of the 14th Amendment. A challenge that may be insurmountable to over come.
Posted by Dan2 on November 7, 2007 05:00 PMJust enforce the law. Misplaced sympathies are of no use to us at this point. Report and deport.
Posted by Ben's Border Street on November 7, 2007 05:10 PMWhy aren't these parents being punished for putting their children is such an awful position?
Posted by on November 7, 2007 05:25 PMDan2
It would not take a Constitutional amendment, it would only take congress redefining the interpretation of the 14th Amendment.
Posted by jgd777 on November 7, 2007 06:03 PMIf the illegal aliens would stay in their own country and raise their children in their own country, none of this would happen. They reap what they sow. Sound harsh? too bad. Send them all home and everyone will be taken care of.
Posted by mi on November 7, 2007 06:19 PMIf we have to give special consideration to illegals with U.S.-born children (and actually, we already do), and by that the letter-writer wants to say FREE PASS, then illegals will simply make it a point to be extremely fertile as soon as they sneak in, which is something at which they are already well accomplished.
Posted by Denise on November 7, 2007 07:18 PMDan2 makes an excellent point:
"What about the children of murderers, rapists, thieves, drug addicts, prostitutes, mentally ill, impoverished, imprisoned, dead-beats, doorknobs, tools, and fools? The destructive life their parent(s) lead is not the fault of the children, is it? Should we not have an awareness of these children as well? To support them, and do everything that we can to attempt to ensure a successful life?
Should we not focus on the children of those who may have lost parent(s) due to crimes committed by those above, or those who may have lost parents who serve in the Armed Forces as a priority?"
I'm hoping Dan2 will go beyond his rhetoric and say what he would like to see done for those children he mentions. Or is he just ranting? Could it be that he is really not interested in wanting something done for these children? Could it be that he was mentioning them only for the rhetorical effect? It is such a plaintiff plea he makes. I really look forward to seeing whether he is sincere or not.
Truth, you really mean "plantive" instead of "plaintiff," don't you? Usually you come across as so educated.
Posted by Denise on November 7, 2007 08:02 PMNow I misspelled. "Plaintive."
Posted by Denise on November 7, 2007 08:03 PMHey, why don't Americans simply start eating these illegal children?
Jonathan Swift modestly proposed this solution for dealing with the unwanted masses of grubby Irish Catholic kids when that country and England weighed its social policy options in light of their 'finite resources' and the people's limited diet. Things worked out there, right?
Come on folks, aren't you all tired of eating at Chili's and Olive Garden? Some of you must appreciate the potential win-win, no? We'll convert those small sections of border fence into corrals, and we can spend the tax money we save from not supporting these little critters on larger shiny gas grills.
Posted by on November 7, 2007 10:37 PMNow we can all wait for the next article from the Rocky MT. News on the mental effect on Colorados working class children. I'll bet there starving and since there parents had to take a hugh pay cut the mental stress at Christmas time because there parent couldn't buy them presents.
I'll bet the Rocky will write about all the presents the corporate CEO can buy there children. Report them--Deport them for the childrens sake.
Stick'em in foster care.If the quality of Children's Services is good enough for us it's good enough for them.If we can get custody of enough of the little tykes(maybe a premium on Venezuelans,but Mexicans are just fine too) we can talk about an Oil for Kids program.
Posted by Jimminy on November 8, 2007 12:00 AMIt was somewhat rhetorical, and somewhat sincere. We can't suppose to solve all the problems of the world. We just can't do it.
For some things, there just are no answers.
Personal responsibility above all else. As a soon to be parent, understanding what I do, and the impact it will have on my family, for me, will help guide me in what I choose to do. I am personally taking responsibility for myself and my family. I would expect others to do the same.
Personal responsibility will only go so far though, and I realize that. I don't have an answer to what to do when "bad people" do "bad things" to the detriment of their families. I think once it gets to the "backside" of the issue, it is already too late to effectively do anything.
I truly believe that "feel good" policies and laws do nothing to address the root problem, but only dress up the result, so that we (the collective we) feel like we are doing something good. I don't purport to have all the answers, or even any answer for this. But, instead of always REACTING, why don't we, just once, try to do something PROACTIVE.
A very simplistic first step, to address the children of illegal immigrants, would be to absolutely prevent the illegal crossing of the border, so that these children do not suffer from separation from their criminal parents. The goal should be to prevent this from occurring in the first place, instead of dealing with the fallout after the fact.
Posted by Dan2 on November 8, 2007 10:59 AMDenise, thank you for improving my vocabulary. But I want to make it clear that it is not my fault. It is the fault of the public schools and mainly the teachers' union, although I suspect that global warming, the communist party, and illegal immigrants were also involved.
Posted by Truth on November 8, 2007 03:34 PMDan2: "We can't suppose to solve all the problems of the world. We just can't do it."
Which is one reason that when someone brings up a problem about the children of illegal immigrants, Dan2 should not complain that there are a lot more children problems than that.
Since Dan2 seems to have completely dropped his "concern" about these other children, I'm not sure why he says his mention of them was partly sincere.
I agree with Dan2's comment about the need to close the borders to, for one among many reasons, prevent us from having problems with yet more children of illegal immigrants.
The main arena for most proactive steps in my opinion is education. That is why we need more funding for education, so we can be more proactive. Is more funding enough? Good Lord no. Not enough at all, but nonetheless essential.
Posted by Truth on November 8, 2007 03:45 PM"truth"
Please tell us how you feel about the author below, unless you're afraid to....
Mexican-American resents footing the bill
Monday, October 22 at 12:01 AM
I am a person of Hispanic descent and I have to tell you that it makes me angry that the other persons of Hispanic descent are expecting us as taxpayers to foot the bill for the education of their children in a bilingual school.
That doubles the expense of educating children. Why is it up to us to interpret the English language for these folks? If the parents of the children would educate themselves prior to coming to our country, perhaps it wouldn’t be as expensive for the schools and maybe then more schools could remain open.
It’s wrong for immigrants who come to this country to expect us to foot the bill for their every need! So let’s not blame the school district for the problems; how about we look in the mirror!
We can’t allow this abuse of our good graces and our programs that were designed for the American people to continue.
I am Mexican myself, however my family came here legally and assimilated to the American way of life including speaking the language of the land — English. If immigrants really want to contribute to America, that would be a good place to start!
Anthony Garcia, Castle Rock
Posted by RickyLee on November 8, 2007 05:14 PMIllegals multiply like guppies. They are trying to overwhelm American society with their offspring and guarantee their U.S. citizenship in the future! Repeal the 14th amendendment and deport parents and all children (including Asians,Africans, Canadians, etc... born to non-U.S. citizens in the last 40 years!!!! I remember when Asian women used to wait until they were 9 months along and hopped a plane..had the kid in the U.S. got the birth certificate stashed it like gold and had a guarantee of U.S. citizenship in the future! We are stupid asses for letting this happen!!!
Posted by on November 9, 2007 09:51 AMOh wow, 9:51, you're such a big meanie for realizing the U.S. cannot possibly help every single poor person in the whole wide world.
Posted by RickyLee on November 9, 2007 09:59 AMThrowing more money at the school system is not going to help.
Children of illegals already get a free education,free breakfast and free lunch. They also get special tutoring , and free summer school.
The principal at my child's school told me the kids who need tutoring and summer school rarely show up.They will show up for the free food though.
The school system already has in place more than enough programs to deal with children of illegals and other minorities. They just don't take advantage of them,Why? Their parents need a babysitter during the day. They could care less about whether they get an education or not.
Meanwhile to accomodate the influx of latinos into the system legal or not the curriculum is watered down to their level,To make them feel good about themselves.
While all this nonsense is going on the American students are getting a watered down,rducation system that does not prepare them for college.
Posted by Can I get an AMEN! on November 11, 2007 08:19 AMAnother thing I would like to see school systems do is to improve the ability of parents to communicate with the teachers. In some schools, each teacher has a website on which the teacher is supposed to post information about what the teacher's students are studying and also homework information. The sites also provide an email address for each teacher by which a parent can ask questions or make comments. I wish all schools had such a system.
The kind of hyperbolic statements that Amen regularly makes are simple rant, such as her blanket statement that parents of illegal immigrants and other minorities "could care less about whether they get an education or not." Such absurd propaganda makes just about makes a legitimate discussion impossible. On the other hand, it may give the poster some kind of perverted sense of satisfaction to condemn whole classes of people, and that is really the function of the forum.
Truth,
I get my information from the Principal.
When I asked why the overall drop in CSAP scpres in 3rd grade ,He said we expected that with the more ESL kids we have.
When I asked him how come the amount of children who get free lunch is almost the same number of latino students, He told me they pretty much get a free lunch no matter what ,if they are latino.
When I asked him if they still had summer school and if they had classes for kids who are ahead and wanted to get an extra start on the next school year,He said summer school is free for latino students and American students pay a small fee which half is returned if the attend the whole session.These classes are for only kids that are behind.
When I asked him if my daughter's could get tutoring to teach them above what they are getting in class which was not adequate at the time, He told me tutoring is only for students that are behind and we can;t get the latino students to take advantage of it.
It is sad that people are in denial about our school system and what is causing it's problems.For alot of years the school ststem pushed separate ESL classes,at the cost of millions in tax payer money.Now they see this has been a terrible failure. So now we have Enlish Emersion Classes,which they should have been done all along.
Some people don't wan't to see that some minorities are dragging the school system down.Their culture is celebrated but they learn not to celebrate learning.
We hear the failing rates and the dropout rates and the school system say over and over , year after year ,if we had more money we could turn this around.If we make the classes hrder than they are ,,we can turn this around.
How is more money and making classes harder going to get these kids to graduate?
It's not and let's stop kidding ourselves. You can't make someone learn,you can't make someone graduate and you can't make a kid go to school who doesn't want to be there . You can get the school systems to stop wasting tax payers money on a failing system.Not everyone is going to care about an education.Use the money to help the kids who care about getting an education and find a Vot-Tech school and cut the others loose.
Posted by Can I get an AMEN! on November 12, 2007 08:37 AM