With almost five months yet to go in Fiscal Year 2018, American taxpayers already have funded "resettlement" of 13,000 unaccompanied minors who managed to enter the United States. These people who claim to be age 17 and under must by law be accommodated in staying here while their cases wind their way through a years-long process of evaluation. President Trump's administration is not pleased and wants change in U.S. law.

In a statement to the media, President Trump's administration explained how unaccompanied minors are resettled in the U.S. after they cross the border: "U.S. law currently requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to transfer unaccompanied aliens from Central America, age 17 and under, who are apprehended at U.S. borders to the care and custody of ACF's Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), where they may eventually be released to a sponsor in the United States," an administration official explained. "Unfortunately, many violent gangs, including MS-13, are exploiting loopholes in U.S. laws to bring gang members into the United States or to recruit UAC once they are placed with a sponsor," the official continued. "Human smuggling organizations are also abusing U.S. laws in order to bring children in the United States. That is why ORR joins the President in calling for Congress to close dangerous loopholes in U.S. law."

Just what we need: unvetted youngsters entitled to be settled wherever sponsors can be found (MS-13, anyone?) across the U.S. Just the thing to replenish a drug gang whose members have died.

During a conference call, senior administration officials said their "hands are tied" when it comes to current U.S. immigration law, which prevents the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency from deporting all border-crossers once they are arrested.



U.S. Customs and Border Protection provide assistance to unaccompanied alien children after they have crossed the border into the United States. Photographer: Barry Bahler.

The need for legal reform is all the more apparent as a column of a reported 1,100 Central Americans winds its way through Mexico toward its goal of the U.S. border, where the adults are expected to claim asylum, which also requires accommodation within the U.S. while the cases are adjudicated.

Up to 80 percent of people who claim a "credible fear" of persecution are being allowed into the U.S. to apply for asylum, the official said. Once inside the U.S., many border-crossers disappear to quietly work and avoid court appearances, he said.

We are being played for suckers, and the U.S. population is being reconfigured toward a populace that depends on government payments and will therefore vote Democrat. We don't need "comprehensive" immigration reform; we need to plus loopholes in our law that are readily exploited by people – including MS-13 – taking advantage of our generosity.