Questions and answers about children at US border

*I’m not sure the story satisfies the headline. The article tells us about the immediate problem, the numbers, the reaction, the trigger causes. We shouldn’t be surprised, then, if the reaction is immediate, without going beyond the nameless numbers and misunderstanding the causes. What do we get from this? That Central America is so bad that it’s children are fleeing, alone, and the U.S. is once again left to shoulder the responsibility. The outcome, that these kids are being used as political props, is not surprising. VL

By Elliot Spagat, Associated Press/El PasoTimes

SAN DIEGO (AP) – About 700 unaccompanied minors mostly from Central America were sleeping on plastic boards at a Border Patrol warehouse in Nogales, Arizona, this weekend, the vast majority flown from South Texas. It is the latest illustration of how a wave of immigrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala has overwhelmed U.S. border authorities. President Barack Obama called the surge a crisis last week and appointed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to lead the government’s response. Here are some questions and answers.

WHAT IS THE SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM?

Illegal border crossings soared for several years in South Texas, which recently surpassed Arizona as the busiest corridor. The Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector made 148,017 arrests from Oct. 1 to May 17, far higher than the 62,876 caught in Tucson, Arizona, which is the second-busiest crossing point.

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