Why are we still encouraging parents from other countries to send their children here in the care of smugglers?

These children are exposed to unacceptable risks when they travel to the U.S. without a parent or someone else who can be trusted to protect them. This has been known for a long time. On June 23, 2014, former President Barack Obama’s Homeland Security secretary, Jeh C. Johnson, published an open letter to Central American parents to warn them of these risks.

“In the hands of smugglers,” he wrote, “many children are traumatized and psychologically abused by their journey, or worse, beaten, starved, sexually assaulted or sold into the sex trade. ... The desire to see a child have a better life in the United States is understandable. But, the risks of illegal migration by an unaccompanied child to achieve that dream are far too great.”

Notwithstanding these warnings, parents continued to send unaccompanied children to cross the U.S. border. In fact, in the year Johnson’s letter was published, the number of border apprehensions of these children reached a record high of 68,541 — and that number went on to increase. Between fiscal........

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