How the Border Became the Disaster It Is, and How Biden Wants to Make It Worse
Understanding the decade-long series of specific decisions that led to chaos
By Andrew R. Arthur on September 20, 2021
The chaotic humanitarian and national-security disaster at the Southwest border did not happen overnight. Although the Biden administration has made it much worse by ham-handedly trashing successful policies put in place by his predecessor to gain control of the border, the disaster is the natural end-product of a series of specific decisions, likely well-meaning but poorly thought-out, over a period of more than a decade. Here they are.
TVPRA, and the Unaccompanied Alien Child Surge
The problem with bad policies is that they are usually enacted with the best of intentions by people who should know better. The best example of this is section 235 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA).
Under that provision, if DHS encounters an unaccompanied child (UAC) from a “contiguous” country (Canada or Mexico), it must screen that child within 48 hours to determine if he or she has an asylum claim or has been trafficked. If the child does not fear return and has not been trafficked, the child can be sent back home. So far, so good.
If the UAC is from a non-contiguous country, however, DHS must transfer the child within 72 hours to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), even if the child has not been trafficked and has no fear of return. HHS puts those children in shelters it runs or for which it has contracts, almost always for quick placement with a sponsor in the United States.
https://cis.org/Report/How-Border-Became-Disaster-It-and-How-Biden-Wants-Make-It-Worse
