Dems Wrong: 2008 Law Does Not Allow Alien Child Invasion

Posted 06:39 PM ET


A protester raises a fist in solidarity as Rep. Luis Guitierrez, D-Ill., is escorted away by police after being arrested while participating in an... View Enlarged Image

Border Crisis: A new report shows the vast majority of unaccompanied minors aren't unaccompanied at all, have family members inside the U.S., are not victims of human trafficking and thus can be deported immediately.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez of Illinois and other Democrats have repeatedly made the argument that Republicans shouldn't complain about the current border invasion since it was a 2008 law that automatically entitles minors from noncontiguous countries to asylum hearings before they face deportation.

Gutierrez and his liberal colleagues in Congress and the media should read the law to find out what's in it.

As the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) points out in a recent report, under the definition of what constitutes an unaccompanied child (UAC) in the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, most children from countries other than Canada or Mexico do not qualify to stay here while they await a hearing.

According to CIS, the law says that to receive the UAC designation the illegal alien must be under 18 and without "a parent or legal guardian in the United States." Yet, CIS notes, about 90% of the non-Mexican and non-Canadian children pouring across the border are placed with family members or guardians in America.

"An illegal immigrant who arrives at the U.S. border who is not a victim of trafficking and has family inside the United States should not be benefiting from protections in the 2008 trafficking law," said Jon Feere, legal policy analyst at CIS.

Indeed, there's no need to amend this law to deal with the current crisis. The problem could end by strictly enforcing the letter of the 2008 law.

Human trafficking involves the transport of children against their will for illicit purposes and without the consent of their parents. The law was designed to prevent the sexual exploitation of children.

CIS notes that smuggling is not trafficking. It is not human trafficking when the families pay fees to smugglers who bring the children into the U.S.

"The Obama administration appears to be hiding behind the 2008 law and acting like it requires them to allow the current wave of illegal immigration to continue," according to the CIS report.

In fact, it does not — plus the administration's position is contradicted by its own Homeland Security secretary, Jeh Johnson.

At a press conference Tuesday, Johnson admitted that nearly all the 50,000-plus Central American youths who have crossed the Texas border since October are accompanied by smugglers hired by the youth's parents or families. "It is our observation and our experience that almost all of them are smuggled," he said.

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