Migrant children are not ’our problem,’ governor — they’re our opportunity

Gov. Kim Reynolds recently delivered a cold and callous message to migrant children detained at the border — “Not our problem.”

The federal government is asking states to help house and care for thousands of unaccompanied minors coming to the U.S.-Mexico border. Reynolds is not only denying that request, she’s going out of her way to politicize the suffering of children.

It makes you wonder if Reynolds and her allies would have been willing to offer a mere corner of the manger to the newborn messiah.

"This is not our problem. This is the president's problem. He is the one that opened the borders. He needs to be responsible for this, and he needs to stop it,” Reynolds said last week during an interview on WHO Radio.

The idea that President Joe Biden “opened the borders” is pure fiction. In reality, the ongoing crisis at the border can be blamed on Biden upholding his predecessor’s extreme border restrictions.

It makes you wonder if Reynolds and her allies would have been willing to offer a mere corner of the manger to the newborn messiah.

Under U.S. law, migrants can apply for asylum at ports of entry on the Mexican border. The Trump administration implemented strict limits on legal entry, expanding on a temporary “metering” policy employed by the Obama administration.

Four months in, Biden has not yet finalized the paperwork to reverse Trump’s border crackdown. Under Biden, the United States this year is set to accept the fewest refugees of any year on record, according to a report from the humanitarian group International Rescue Committee.

Migrants are told to come “the right way” but there is no right way available to them. With no legal means to enter the United States, some migrants have been forced to set up camps outside the border or enter the country illegally. Those conditions led to the problems we now face — desperate parents sending their innocent children across the border because they have no better option.

Presidents, Congresses and governors of the last few decades all share some of the responsibility for creating this mess. The country needs comprehensive immigration reform to make it easier to legally come to our country and negate the incentive to come illegally, thereby undercutting the traffickers and smugglers.

But we must not use past inaction and mismanagement as a justification to turn our backs on a humanitarian crisis. Leaders must put politics aside and offer assistance to children in need, no matter where they came from.

Before the Trump era, many mainstream Republicans had practical and compassionate views on immigration. Ronald Reagan, a border-state governor before becoming president, signed a bill to simultaneously increase border security and grant amnesty to millions living in the country illegally. George W. Bush, another border governor, backed a bill to offer legal status to millions more immigrants, though the proposal ultimately faltered.

Former Iowa Gov. Robert Ray — mentor to Reynolds’ mentor, Terry Branstad — is the shining example of a humanitarian Republican.

At the end of the Vietnam War, Ray answered President Gerald Ford’s call to accept refugees. The state helped place more than 1,000 people from Vietnam and surrounding areas into Iowa homes.

Ray rightly recognized that the refugees were victims of communism and war. Rather than a burden, he saw them as an asset to our culture and economy.

“These people have become productive, contributing members of our society, paying taxes and earning their own way,” Ray said while advocating for refugees during a congressional hearing a few years later.

Some of the kids we embrace today could stick around and be business owners, schoolteachers and city council members in a decade or two. Iowa’s need for more residents, workers and taxpayers is well documented, and yet we are turning away people who might thrive here.

Undoubtedly, sponsoring unaccompanied minors will be challenging. Human services officials said the state doesn’t have resources or facilities lined up to offer.

But Iowans are compassionate and resourceful. Given a challenge, we will rise to it.

Perhaps faith communities, which Reynolds relies on for fundraising and political organizing, could be called upon to offer church basements and congregants’ spare rooms. The business community, also heavily populated by Reynolds’ boosters, could be mobilized to help as well.

Reynolds might have been right when she said migrant children are not “our problem.” Rather, they are our opportunity.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com