Congressional Response to Child Migrants

In an electronic newsletter, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC) pretty well sums up the conservative response to the child migrant crisis. He gives viewers a poll to fill out:

What do you think is the first step in solving the humanitarian crisis at our southern border?Secure the borderEnforce current immigration lawsHold Mexican and Central American governments accountableReunite children with their families in their home countriesI don't know.

Every response except "I don't know" is disingenuous. "Securing" the border is obviously not as binary as everyone makes it out to be--you can only be more or less secure, and we're more secure than ever in history (total security with a new Berlin Wall would completely strangle the economies of all border cities on both sides). We're at a point of diminishing returns there as well--every $1 billion more in border enforcement will not get you very far. 

Immigration laws are currently being enforced so aggressively that record numbers of people are being rounded up and deported, such that judges are well over a year behind. 

The idea of solving the problem holding Mexican and Central American governments "accountable" is a chimera--punishing them will very obviously make the problem worse. 

Reuniting children with their families gives the impression that they simply need to return to their loving parents and siblings and we can return to regularly scheduled programming. But those same parents sent them in the first place. Assuming you can even find the family (no mean feat) they will likely send them again immediately.

None of these options resolve anything. They only give the impression of doing so. There is absolutely no hope of finding a solution if you stick to only one side. It requires a complicated combination of enforcement, amnesty, acknowledgment of labor needs, intelligent and directed foreign aid programs and a willingness to admit what won't work and why. Compassion would be nice but I'd take a good bill even without it. It might be asking too much anyway, when people literally protest children.