Those of us who live near the U.S.- Mexico border are used to seeing bizarre things — but not this bizarre.
Law enforcement agencies don’t typically come to the aid of those who break the law. But that’s what happened last week when three San Diego-area high school students who were in the country illegally and had been deported to Mexico were given “humanitarian parole” and allowed to rejoin their families in the U.S. The Border Patrol notified lawyers handling the minors’ cases that the three would be allowed to return and given a court date before an immigration judge in order to ask to remain in the U.S. permanently.
Trust me, this doesn’t happen every day. The Border Patrol is in the export business, not the import business. I called Mike Fisher, chief Border Patrol agent for the San Diego sector, and asked him to explain.
“Upon further review of the totality of the circumstances surrounding the juveniles in this case — to include the best interests of the three juveniles, the families and the United States — they were paroled into the country,” Fisher said.
That’s no acknowledgment that mistakes were made. But someone bungled this operation. Why else would the Border Patrol let the students back into the country other than to right a wrong? What’s the alternative theory — that this was a random act of mercy? If so, the Border Patrol can expect hundreds of thousands of other deported migrants to ask for their own merciful return trip to the U.S.
It’s obvious that the agents who arrested, processed and deported the students — two boys and a girl — violated the agency’s own policy of how to handle minors. A number of U.S. government officials, Mexican government officials, and immigration lawyers all say there is an established procedure for what immigration officials are supposed to do with underage illegal immigrants, with the idea being to treat them with more care than is typically shown with adults.
On May 20, officials with the Transportation Security Administration — joined by Border Patrol agents and local transit officers — were conducting a training exercise at a trolley station in San Diego. Seeking illegal immigrants, the Border Patrol apprehended 21 people, including the three minors.
At the time of the arrests, the agents could have issued notices for the three to appear in court, then continue to detain them only until authorities could locate their parents or guardians. The Border Patrol was also supposed to contact the Mexican consulate. None of that happened in this case.
Among those who favor open borders or lax immigration enforcement, you’ll find plenty of people who believe that the government shouldn’t deport undocumented minors — period.
I won’t go that far. My heart goes out to the families. But, as someone who supports immigration enforcement, I can’t wrap my head around the idea that, while it is fine to enforce immigration laws for adults, we should ignore them for minors.
The issue in this case is not that young people were deported but how the Border Patrol went about doing it. Had the agency followed its own rules, this case might never have come to light. The Border Patrol would never have felt the urge to issue humanitarian parole. And three young people who shouldn’t be in the U.S. in the first place would be spending the summer — and perhaps many more after that — in Mexico.
Some people think this story is about people’s rights. It’s really about responsibilities, including the obligation to enter the U.S. legally. Or at least to take steps to become legal once you get here.
Otherwise you could find yourself at the mercy of a bureaucracy. Not a good place to be.
