So, here we are: The Wilberforce Act, logical and humane on paper, has been overthrown by an influx of Central American kids that reached 10,146 in fiscal 2012, 20,805 in fiscal 2013 and 39,133 between last October and June 15, according to the Los Angeles Times.
They’re sprawled on the floors of dingy detention centers across the Southwest — if they didn’t get lost, kidnapped or killed during the 1,500-mile Middle Passage through Mexico. A boy from Guatemala, Gilberto Ramos, described variously as 11 or 15, recently perished near La Joya, Tex., while trying to get into the United States to earn money to help his mother.
If they do find their way to a stable home in the United States, the children will likely skip their far-in-the-future hearings and grow up undocumented, living in the shadows even under the version of immigration reform favored by President Obama — though maybe we can look forward to a brutal political debate over legalizing them a decade from now.
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