Been watching the news? Reading Facebook? The newspaper?
What on earth is going on with this planet?! Besides all the battles and wars raging on at the moment (God be with our military men and women!), I am infuriated about these illegal "kids" flooding our nation. This is not an innocent migration of children. Some of these persons are 22 years old. Maybe I've lost my mind altogether but I thought childhood ended somewhere around 18. Doesn't mean you're all grown up at that age of majority, but it certainly means American society is ready to dump you to the wolves. Our citizens are going without, while illegals flood our states making demands and getting handouts. Where is the sense in this situation?
And they're packing our foster homes with these kids. What happened to having homes available to the kids who really need a safe place to go? Apparently our leadership is no longer concerned with the safe placement of the child being abused and neglected just right down the street.
And why are we bringing these illegal children here to foster them and then reunite them with their families? We aren't planning to reunite them in their home countries but RIGHT HERE IN AMERICA!!!
I can't see a good end to this at all. I'm speaking from experience here. As a foster parent for 12 years, I've had the opportunity to parent illegal immigrant children. Most of them were born here or came here as small children but a handful have simply strolled across the border, after being told everything in America is free. Where are they now? Running wild and free and costing taxpayers their hard-earned money. From birthing a premature baby here for the sake of birthing in America, to wrecking into a parked car (not once, but twice!), these illegal "kids" are costing our country far more than they're worth.
No, I'm not saying a human life is not worth fighting for, caring for, showing them the right direction and teaching them how to find work and become a citizen. All of those things are valuable. But show me one of them from Central or South America actually interested in citizenship and working hard just like the rest of us. Being jaded as I am now, I haven't seen one yet bent on doing the right thing.
We struggled with our foster daughter from South America, constantly bending over backward to make sure she had the tools necessary to graduate high school, the ability to get a job and look for an apartment, and the path to being a contributing citizen. As a person she was a wonderful family member, funny and sweet, often helpful and gentle with my children. As an illegal 18 year old she took off as soon as she could, knowing we couldn't stop her. Within two weeks she had been in a nasty car accident (driving without a license), prostituting and doing drugs as well. When I reported my newfound knowledge I was told this was a common occurrence with the kids coming here from Central and South America. And yet we're still letting them flood our borders. We're still welcoming them to our foster homes, reaching out, making them comfortable and going above and beyond.
They come here with lies and stories they know will break hearts and open doors. We feel empathy as we bring them home, only learning when it's too late that all those stories were simply falsehoods passed down from one child to the next to make the process more believable and easier to get in to America. Rarely do we encounter a girl who's been forced to work since she was 5 years old, no education and left vulnerable to the world. She's endured unspeakable acts done to her person and been brave enough to walk for 4 months to reach the land of opportunity. She's the girl we should be reaching out to.
It seems those times are past now. Enter the drug dealing 15 year old. Enter the 16 year old gang member. Enter the 22 year old....child? Enter the government bent on destroying itself from the inside out. What do we normally do with America's children involved in illegal activities? We put them in residential centers with therapy and education. They'll either sit there and wait or go without ..... America has more interesting children to placate now.
