Opinion: Migrant children should not be used as political pawns

North Carolina recently joined a national conversation when the Surry County Board of Commissioners issued a strongly worded resolution to keep migrant children out of their county.

This public statement joined those of the Rowan and Brunswick county boards.

Immigration is a politically charged issue, a fact which North Carolina municipalities are using as an excuse not to provide migrant children with the help they need. Since the state is now responsible for more than 1,400 migrant children, North Carolina needs its leaders to take active steps to understand and ameliorate their plight.

In July, the executive and judicial branches attempted to take action, but were quickly stifled by political forces.

But that was then. Now, midterm elections are approaching, and no one wants the outcry-inducing image that comes as a result of dealing with the issue of these children.

And Gov. Pat McCrory does not seem to have informed himself sufficiently about this issue.

According to The (Raleigh) News & Observer, in an early August news conference, McCrory criticized the current federal policy and raised concerns about the impact of immigration on public health, only to find that the Department of Health and Human Services immediately provides children with medical care.

After his news conference, the governor received push-back from El Pueblo, a Raleigh-based Latino advocacy group, WRAL reported. A spokeswoman for the group said the governor did not contact advocacy groups working with migrant children for information before protesting that the federal government had not supplied details on the children’s identities and sponsors. The group indicated they would have been able to provide the information requested.

North Carolina’s leaders have shown a clear lack of empathy in dealing with this issue, barely acknowledging the violent and destitute situation that led these children to flee to the United States.

The News & Observer quoted the governor as saying he wants the children to be “sent back home where they started this terrible, terrible journey.”

Groups independently helping the children continue to be overlooked by such leaders.

Instead of feeding the callous politics around this issue, North Carolina leaders need to find a way to at least give these children a voice, a temporary home and safety. No humanitarian issue has ever been resolved with defensive news conferences and exclusionary resolutions.