Tea at Trianon: The Border Crisis

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, July 13, 2014

The Border Crisis

Aleteia on the Catholic response. To quote:

According to immigrants themselves, they are fleeing to the United States to avoid violence inflicted by the deadly street gangs that have all but taken over El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Young people in those countries are routinely intimidated into joining the gangs, and those who resist recruitment are frequently killed or their families attacked. So they flee.

The United States isn’t the only country seeing an increase in these refugees. The relatively gang-free Central American nations of Panama, Belize, Costa Rica and Nicaragua have also been struggling with the influx. Along with Mexico, these countries have reported a 432% increase in migration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras since 2009.

According to US law, unaccompanied minors can’t simply be turned around and immediately deported, which is what usually happens with adults. Instead, they are temporarily detained in a network of over 100 family shelters while the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) notifies any relatives they may have here, or arranges for placement with foster families. They are then permitted to stay while their cases proceed through the legal system. Much the same treatment is accorded to mothers with minor children.

In this case, the Obama Administration’s hands are tied. The present system was established by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and the Trafficking Victims Reauthorization Act of 2008, both signed by President George W. Bush.

What is so remarkable about the current crisis is that the crush of immigrants is stretching resources and tempers to the breaking point in the American Southwest. According to HHS, their network of family shelters can accommodate about 6,000 people at any one time. With ten times that number of immigrants, those shelters have been overwhelmed, leading to cramped and unsanitary conditions. In response, the federal government has been using other facilities – schools, military installations, even prisons – as temporary shelters.

One such facility is located in Murietta, CA, an inland town about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. On July 1, local citizens carrying signs reading “Illegals Out” blocked roads and hurled insults as buses full of mothers and children attempted to make their way to the Border Patrol processing station in that city. Fearing for the safety of the immigrants, officials rerouted the buses to San Diego. Rumors spread that more buses would arrive on Friday, July 4. Pro- and anti-immigration activists converged on the town and though no buses arrived, clashes between the two groups resulted in the arrest of six persons.

For their part, the Catholic bishops have called on the government and indeed all Americans to exercise compassion and patience for children and families in detention. That theme continued this week during the National Migration Conference, co-sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Migration and Refugee Services (USCCB/MRS), the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) and Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA). (Read more.)