Hume pointed to the wording of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, pointing out that it has specific requirements for unaccompanied minors coming into the United States illegally and that he said is where much confusion lies.

“In the uproar of tens of thousands of illegal children pouring across the border, people don’t know what the law is and others pretend they don’t. Republican Congressman Raul Labrador of Idaho said on Sunday TV that the Obama administration should deport these children immediately. Later in the interview, he conceded the law does not permit that. The law in question is called the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008. It was passed by Congress unanimously and signed by President Bush. It requires that immigrant minors apprehended at the border may only be deported immediately if they are from Mexico or Canada.”

“The rest must be turned over within three days to the Department of Health and Human Services to await deportation hearings,” he continued. “In the meantime the law says quote, ‘They shall be placed in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child.’ With an estimated 50,000 such children having come here from Central America this year, you can imagine how much trouble HHS is having housing them not to mention how long it will take the courts to process their cases. Even then there are a rage of legal possibilities that could keep them in this country indefinitely. Politicians are fond of railing against human traffickers for spreading the rumor that such immigrant kids can easily get into this country. But it’s not really a rumor — it’s the law.”