Pubdate: Thu, 24 Jul 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Page: 17A

HOW U.S. DRUG USE FUELS BORDER CRISIS

Is the American appetite for drugs like cocaine helping to stoke
mayhem in Central America that in turn pushes migrants north?

That's what Gen. John F. Kelly, head of U.S. Southern Command, argued
recently in an article in Military Times. Kelly says that "drug
cartels and associated street gang activity in Honduras, El Salvador
and Guatemala, which respectively have the world's number one, four
and five highest homicide rates, have left near-broken societies in
their wake."

And Honduras President Juan Hernandez recently seconded the notion,
saying anti-drug operations in Colombia and Mexico have pushed the
cartels into nations ill-equipped to suppress them.

There are, of course, other reasons for why the tide of unaccompanied
minors crossing the border picked up this year. The Washington Post
reports that the Obama administration failed to heed warnings last
year of a possible jump in numbers. Meanwhile, a law passed under the
George W. Bush administration for processing refugee children from
Central America has encouraged the tide, and needs to be revised.

But the report by the general reinforces the claim that some migrants
are not just seeking opportunity but fleeing chaos.

The White House on Monday said that the number of unaccompanied minors
crossing the border declined sharply in recent weeks, to 150 per day
from an average of 355 per day in June.

So maybe the message that the children will, for the most part, be
returned to their homelands has begun to percolate through the Central
American countries from which they primarily come.

Still, even 150 such crossings a day would result in more than 50,000
children annually arriving on U.S. soil- and still constitutes a
humanitarian crisis.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock last week stepped up to offer temporary
housing in an underutilized youth facility, and CBS4 reported this
week that a partly empty facility in Arapahoe County under contract
with the state is also interested in housing some of the children.

They may have to be returned, but they should be housed humanely until
that day. And that's especially true given how this nation craves the
drugs that have fostered so much violence in the children's homelands.
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MAP posted-by: Matt