New media reports are exposing the scope of the humanitarian crisis that is occurring at the Arizona and Texas border. Reports from the U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement estimate that close to 1,000 unaccompanied and undocumented children are crossing into the United States. These numbers have never been seen before and are straining state and federal resources as the children are being processed.
However, it took Sheriff Don Ray, the executive director of the Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition to make an unfair comparison to victims of hurricane Katrina. Ray is quoted as saying, “You can’t have an influx of people like that without having an impact; I think we saw that after Katrina. It’s relocation services that are really taking place. In the case of Katrina, most of them were United States citizens or people that were here lawfully, and now you have people that aren’t here lawfully.”
Hurricane Katrina was the worst disaster to befall an American City destroying vast parts of New Orleans and displacing thousands of mostly black residents from Louisiana. Ray’s statement is at best another attempt to racially polarize the immigration crisis by pitting brown versus black. The victims of Katrina had no choice on whether or not they wanted to leave the city and secondly, Katrina victims were American citizens.
But how President Obama handles this humanitarian crisis is certain to be used as a political weapon. Some ultraconservative residents are demanding that the U.S. military be sent to the border to stop the flow of those crossing into the U.S illegally. But the thought of American soldiers turning away children in the desert is something that is not being entertained.
