In 2019 672,000 children spent time in foster care in the US. It’s absurd that the sheer volume here is a problem. The problem is the government/cops want to have the children on hand for deportation. Civil courts and society, local social service agencies and charities could handle this easily. There already is an “army” of people who deal with child welfare in this country, the problem is the cops aren’t it and they won’t let the children go because they’ve broken our horrible laws.
From the California Department of Social Services (CA has 60k kids in foster care)
Thousands of children in California’s foster care system require temporary out-of-home care because of parental neglect, abuse, or exploitation. The largest percentages are African American and Latino children. Some stay in foster care for weeks; some for years. The children are of all ages and varying needs. Foster parents provide a supportive and stable family for children who cannot live with their birth parents until family problems are resolved. In most cases, foster parents work with social services staff to reunite the child with birth parents. Foster parents often provide care to many different children.
A license is required to operate a foster home. The process requires a licensing worker to visit your home and meet with you and other family members. Minimum personal, safety and space requirements are required by law. Foster parents work with social services staff to determine the type of child best suited for their home (i.e., age, health issues, and gender). Foster parents receive a monthly payment to feed, clothe, and meet the material needs of the children placed in their care. Medical and dental coverage is provided through the Medi-Cal program. For working parents, appropriate child care arrangements must be made by the foster parents.
A whole system in place and ready to care for children on a temporary basis that’s not in prisons. People are vetted. Supportive services are provided.
The state is afraid they will not be able to put them back in jail or deport them. That’s it. They become like the DACA kids if they go into foster care and will end up staying in the US for the most part. That’s what they’re afraid of.
It’s hard for you to imagine that he believes a family in Guatemala should be able to send their kid straight to family in California with no police involvement the same way we can send our kids to visit someone across the country with no police involvement?
I went from CA to CO alone to visit my grandparents when I was 8. No police. I sent one of my kids from CA to WA by herself when she was 16. No police.
Do you think there are a bunch of children who left to make it on their own in America or do you think they had someone they were planning on living with when they got here? If they’re planning on living with someone, why the hell is it the federal government’s job to step in and preemptively vet those people and imprison the kids in the meantime? How is it different than an American kid going to stay with family, besides the fact that they crossed an imaginary border somewhere along the way?
That’s exactly what local police/social workers/teachers/etc are legally required to do if any child is found (wandering unsupervised away from home and in apparent danger) without parent or guardian until the purported guardian can be vetted. It is of course better for a child to be in a licensed government facility than with a relative who fails a background check for abuse/neglect. This is a not insignificant % of the public and it is reckless to not evaluate and assess placement of a child before placed in an abusive environment.
My preference would be for the states, who already have a significant child welfare apparatus in place, to act as partners with the federal government to place children in more humane environments during the vetting process, and to allow for more prompt placement of the children with friends/family. The sad reality is the border states tend to be pretty conservative (especially Texas), so they probably chopped off that olive branch.
Fucking two months into the Biden admin and the majority of unstuck has now decided that actually what we needed all along was MORE kids in cages - for safety!
I mean, hard to see that post as an attempt at honest discussion too, but I’ll try. I’d detain any child in the ER and file a CPS report for a child sent by their parents to make such a trip alone. CNN’s latest article on this involves kids 2 to 6 years old being sent over on a raft. If someone did that in the US, I’d detain them too in a heartbeat.
It takes time to set those arrangements up when a ton come at the same time, and it needs to be done correctly.
I guess you have me on ignore. The states already have legions of people who are vetted.
Also, kids go around without their parents pretty often without being taken by the cops. You know most of these unaccompanied kids are 15-17 and a lost white 4 year old in the US ends up in social services or with their family and doesn’t spend even one night in jail.
I think you mean legally required. If a parent sets their child to make an unsafe trip like so many of these kids do, I’m bound by law to ensure that they are discharged into safe custody. I cannot just let them go on a promise they’ll find their uncle or whatever.
Once you take custody of a child you are legally required in every other context to ensure that they are going to the right place. I don’t see why the border should be different.
Most of these kids are older. They have to go by raft instead of walking across the border into the arms of their family most of the time because of the government, the police, the laws, the Biden Administration. And, the kid you file a CPS report on? How many nights in jail do they spend?
It doesn’t matter if they are older. I can’t let a 15 year old just go either. You can either deal with the reality of borders or not, frankly I’m not in favor of them at all really, but when you aren’t addressing the reality of the situation there’s not much more to talk about.
You really let your personal experience color everything. They aren’t in the ER.
The reality of the situation is that they are considered criminals and that’s why they are detained by the police. A young white American kid wandering around gets into a social worker’s care and either their parents found or into the vast existing foster care system asap. An older white American kid (not in the ER) is left alone if they aren’t in obvious trouble.
What you are saying is, “be real, they are criminals, the police have to keep tabs on them”. Yeah, that’s true. It’s also disgusting.
Micro is right here of course. The border line and even nationalities are made up human constructs. They are being used as excuses here to commit atrocities against children when as Micro says the same aged kids not crossing imaginary lines or with scary nationalities aren’t being treated like that and we don’t have some existential problem.
We are creating the problem at the border ourselves by continuing to act like people fleeing bad situations or reuniting with family in the United States are criminals. It is a sick mindset and sick behavior.
Wake me up when we have border camps at the northern border or are mass imprisoning Canadians overstaying their visas.
I’m willing to think I could but wrong, my issue you saying stuff like I’m not bright enough to understand you or that I think the children are actually criminals is lazy dishonest bullshit from someone not able to make their point in another way.
At the end of the day, you and I have pretty much the exact same goals just different ideas of what is possible in the short term. This causes you to call me a stupid racist idiot. That’s… a take.