The Real Story Behind the ‘Invasion’ of the Children - Truthdig
The Real Story Behind the ‘Invasion’ of the Children
This piece first appeared at TomDispatch. Read Tom Engelhardt’s introduction here.
Call it irony or call it a nightmare, but the “crisis” of Central
American children crossing the U.S.-Mexican border, which lasted for
months amid fervent and angry debate, is now fading from the news. The
media stories have been legion, the words expended many. And yet, as
the “crisis” leaves town, as the sound and fury die down and attention
shifts elsewhere (even though the children continue to arrive),
the real factors that would have made sense of what’s been happening
remain essentially untouched and largely unmentioned. It couldn’t be
stranger—or sadder.
Since late June 2014, the “surge” of those thousands of desperate
children entering this country has been in the news. Sensational
stories were followed by fervent demonstrations and
counter-demonstrations with emotions running high. And it’s not a
debate that stayed near the southern border either. In my home state,
Massachusetts, Governor Deval Patrick tearfully offered to detain some
of the children—and that was somehow turned into a humanitarian gesture
that liberals applauded and anti-immigrant activists decried.
Meanwhile the mayor of Lynn, a city north of Boston, echoed nativists on
the border, announcing that her town didn’t want any more
immigrants. The months of this sort of emotion, partisanship, and
one-upmanship have, however, diverted attention from the real issues.
As so often is the case, there is so much more to the story than what
we’ve been hearing in the news.
