The Latest US Immigration "Crisis"

I was considering writing a post on the latest issue that the American right has been trying to club US President Barack Obama over the head with, namely the influx of unaccompanied minors arriving as refugees at the US border with Mexico, but for the most part I think Jon Stewart (for a transcript see here) and Stephen Colbert have covered it pretty well. For a more positive story about church groups working to help immigrant families, there's this article. Otherwise, all I'd like to add is to reiterate that the assertion that this influx is primarily due to Obama's immigration policies is clearly false, as not only has the US not seen a spike in similar arrivals from other Latin American countries, but Mexico and Costa Rica have also seen a large increase in refugee applications from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador (and it's not like Obama's supposed "amnesty" for immigrants would be attracting people to Costa Rica). Also, while this influx of children, with or without accompanying parents, may indeed strain resources at the border, it's not like the US as a whole is in any danger of being overwhelmed by an "invasion" of a few thousand children; it is, after all, a rich nation of 300 million people, so it can absorb these kids easily. Finally, it occurs to me that one could make a pretty dramatic film showing the journey of a child refugee escaping from a deadly environment in their home country and trying to reach the US despite all the obstacles in the way (including a not completely welcoming reception at the US border). Who knows, if it was done well it might actually improve ordinary Americans' attitudes toward undocumented immigrants, though it no doubt would have no effect on the die hard immigrant haters.