Interesting legal loophole mentioned in yonuh's article link.

I actually am quite uncomfortable with unaccompanied children as illegal migrants used...as pawns in this situation. It just doesn't feel right since they can't work, they need adults to look after them, speak their language for first few years, as they learn English in the whole transition phase. I entered kindergarten not knowing English at all.....and I was born in Canada, folks. I know what it means to be "lost" in school for the first year. I was in shock but at least I had the comfort of always going home to my parents.)

Hmmm, am trying to remember history, the European war children who didn't have parents after WWII and were working on farms, sent into abusive situations, etc. I know circumstances are different, but still similar...separated from parent(s), relative, etc.

As for the vigilantes, Minutemen at the border: Except for the police or national army with guns, this is not safe solution at all. (So this is another reason why some Americans are so pro-gun??? Ordinary citizens trying to protect an international border with guns.)

It is a nasty situation, Orchid, and I appreciate your comments, since you can give us a unique point of view, given that your parents emigrated before you were born.

But from what I could glean the first time I visited my mother and step-father in Tucson, is that it is close enough to the border town of Nogales (there are twin cities of Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Mexico) that it is not as safe an area as we "Northerners" might think.

My mother drove me to Nogales, AZ, because she thinks there are some nice "touristy" shops there that sell hand-crafted Mexican goods, which she wanted to show me. (I actually still use a handmade purse I bought while visiting Nogales).

I didn't tell her, because I didn't want to bad-mouth her new home, but I was actually quite unimpressed with the area, as many of the roads are dirt, and the public restroom we stopped at because I needed to "use the facilities" while we were in town was really not much more than a fancy outhouse. In fact, on entering, I decided I could wait to pee until we got back to Tucson.

But here's an article from The Daily Beast which claims Mexico's drug cartels are behind these children's situation.

I don't know whether it's factually correct or not, but if it is, it offers an interesting new dimension to this story.

It's a sad situation for sure. And I am appalled by the people blocking buses carrying these children, and yelling at them, and using disgusting language. I don't know what the answer is, but politicians of a certain persuasion are falling all over themselves saying these children have to be returned to where they came from because they're illegal, and it's because of the Dream Act that they're coming here, and on and on and on. The Republicans running for Governor here are already ramping up the rhetoric, and they haven't even had the primary yet. And the vigilantes are also stirring up sentiments against people coming over the border and painting them as vandals and drug runners.