The real crisis is child poverty

The surge of unaccompanied children and youth at our southern border may not be a “crisis” as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told members of Congress, but it must surely feel that way to the children and to the families they left behind (“Mayorkas and Congress spar over surge at border,” March 18).

Given their present situation, the children, who have become pawns in this calamity, likely could care less about the country in which they were born. They simply want and need what every child does: food, clothing, shelter and a loving, protective family. That their fate is tied to something called “national identity,” when their nation of origin can’t assure them of safety or basic subsistence, is an absurdity on its face.

What is truly frightening is that the demographics are only going to get worse. World population is expected to grow from our present 7.6 billion to almost 10 billion by 2050 and the vast majority of newcomers will be born in nations just like the ones producing today’s asylum-seekers.

If we can’t manage the present flow any better, how will we manage the numbers in 2050?

Clearly, the immigration crisis will be with us for a long time to come, as will anti-immigrant fervor, which can no longer be attributed solely to racism and xenophobia. The numbers are simply too daunting.

We must do better by the children, if only to preserve our humanity.

Howard Bluth, Baltimore