Riding the rails: Undocumented children cross US border in increasing numbers

Photo: Reuters/Jose de Jesus Cortes

People hoping to reach the US ride atop the wagon of a freight train, known as La Bestia (The Beast) in Ixtepec, in the Mexican state of Oaxaca June 18, 2014. Thousands of young people are hoping to reach the US from their impoverished and violent homes in Central America. In the eight months ended June 15, the US has detained about 52,000 children at the Mexican border, double the figure the year earlier. There's no telling how many have gotten through.

 

Yes, we are housing a lot of the children here in Oklahoma. Some of the other states need to help with the burden, though. There's a lot of room in upstate New York, plenty of land left in Illinois, Vermont, Connecticut, Michigan and many other states. If the federal government isn't going to stop them at the border, the least they could do is provide buses to ship them to not only Oklahoma, but northern, eastern, western and central states as well.