Senator Cornyn and Representative Cuellar of Texas have presented a common sense bill in the House and in the Senate that is called the Humane Act. It would add well needed Immigration judges and help expedite the process of dealing with the immediate problems of the thousands upon thousands of unaccompanied minors who are flooding across our borders seeking asylum.

The proposed legislation does not deal with the underlying reasons for why we are seeing the mushrooming of a huge humanitarian problem. These children are coming across the border fleeing from drug cartels, street gangs and instability in their native lands.

We need to address the problem of why they are fleeing if we wish to see this vast exodus from that part of the world discontinue. Criminal violence is what these children face back home. This is no less of a reason to give them asylum than if they were seeking political asylum.

These are children that will come back and try to enter our country again if we do not address the root causes of their flight. Sending them back on an airplane will be like putting a bandage on a cancer.

If we look at ourselves in the mirror and actually are honest with each other we would admit that the fact that Americans are the biggest users of illegal drugs. We should acknowledge that we are part of the problem of why the children are fleeing. For a parent to send their child on a perilous journey to escape danger should tell you something about how bad it must be back home.

It is embarrassing to see children sleeping in a cage on cement. Americans are better than that. Historically we are a generous people. Many of us, through our relatively short history, came here as immigrants on that storm tossed sea that Emma Lazarus’s poem on the Statue of Liberty speaks to. We were that wretched poor seeking liberty. Let us hope that wisdom will prevail and that some of the children from Central America will find a safe haven from fear and death. Let us keep the flame of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness alive. Let us shrink from fear and offer sanctuary for children who seek safety.