Glenn Beck Trucking Supplies to Border for Illegal Immigrants, Surprising People Who Base Their Opinions on Stereotypes

The influx of unaccompanied children crossing the
border illegally and surrendering themselves to border patrol
agents—more than 50,000 have reportedly crossed since October,
three times the number in 2011—has turned the border into a
political lightning rod.

Migration to America, illegal or otherwise, is relatively
constant. During the recession, as job opportunities decreased so
did immigration. In the meantime President Obama
ramped up deportations. Before redeploying Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) assets closer to the border, border
patrolling
involved document checkpoints as far as a hundred miles from
the border. Since his re-election, the president’s made a
half-hearted attempt to negotiate immigration reform with Congress.
The process was loaded with
giveaways to build legislative support but ultimately died
anyway, just as the process eight years ago during the tail end of
the Bush administration died too, that time with the help of
then-Senator Obama.

Reports indicate the increase in children crossing the border,
many coming from Central America, has to do with rumors there that
unaccompanied minors that make it across the border can stay—the
legal process to remove them often takes years but it does not look
like the law is being changed anytime soon to allow them to stay.
Nevertheless, the security and economic situation in Central
America is getting progressively worse—in part thanks to the U.S.’s
aggressive war on drug policies as well as a hundred and fifty years
of off-again on-again intervention in the region.

The influx has attracted pro-
and anti-immigration protesters in Murietta, California, where
the feds have been busing the children for detention and
processing. President Obama has used it as cover to ask for $3
billion in funding, even though what’s happening is something the
Department of Homeland Security ought to be able to manage given
the funding and resources they already have. Jesse Jackson wants to
use the fact that the president is looking for that kind of money
to argue Obama should be spending that kind of money on Chicago too
(because Chicago has a crime problem). Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel,
formerly President Obama’s chief of staff, joined in. Unlike
Jackson he won’t blame Obama but did blame Congress for not
spending money on Chicago (seriously).

In the midst of this all comes Glenn Beck and his plan to send
truckloads of water, food, clothing, and toys to the children at
the border who “through no fault of their own are caught in
political crossfire.” The conservative television host insists
people have to keep putting pressure on DC to stop the
“lawlessness” at the border but that his viewers should also help.
“We have to be active in the political game and we must open our
hearts,” he said. It shouldn’t be that surprising that faced with
the suffering of humans a human would act, well, human.

Yet President Obama refused to go to the border to see the
problem for himself—calling it a photo opportunity, as if he’s
never taken advantage of
one—and Beck appears to be the only prominent figure, left or
right, interested enough in the crisis at the border to do
something himself and not just use it as a political opportunity to
push for his preferred policy solutions. It shouldn’t surprise
anyone who’s paid attention to Beck over the years. Conservatives
concerned about illegal immigration aren’t all
frothing-at-the-mouth nationalists like the ones who showed up in
Murietta. Beck’s heart comment in fact
mirrors Jeb Bush’s recent comments on why Republicans need to
soften up on illegal immigration—actual people are involved in the
problem and a political stance based on “them’s the breaks” isn’t a
winner at the polls nor a foundation for sound policy. Supporting
limited government means supporting government policies that allow
humans to flourish. Demanding tougher immigration rules and that
the government hunt down and forcibly remove people who took the
risk and made the sacrifices necessary to cross the border
illegally—a misdemeanor—and try to start a new life here has
nothing to do with limited government.

Meanwhile at Breitbart John Nolte argues that Glenn Beck is
wrong, his acts of charity could be exploited by drug smugglers and
that because the children face a risk of sexual assault during
their trek the compassionate thing to do would be “to ensure you’re
not doing anything that might encourage more parents to send their
unaccompanied children.” Given what Obama’s policies have done to
this economy in the last six years, and what Bush did before him,
that there’s still an interest in migrating to the U.S., illegally
or otherwise, speaks volume to how much freer and wealthier we are
than most of the rest of the world. As long as this is the land of
opportunity and the home of the free, people seeking opportunity
and freedom will keep wanting to come here. The compassion act is
to allow them.