NEWS
Dan Rodricks | July 22, 2014
Humanity faces its biggest refugee crisis since World War II, and Rep. Andy Harris, the Republican congressman from Maryland's 1st District, pledges to do everything in his power to keep a tiny fraction of Central American children out of a shelter in Carroll County. Harris is a doctor, but apparently not a compassionate one. Maybe he should start his own organization as a conservative counterweight to rampant humanitarianism. He could call it Doctors With Borders, Medecins Avec Frontieres.
NEWS
By Michael Dresser, The Baltimore Sun | July 21, 2014
Gov. Martin O'Malley and a group of faith leaders agreed Monday that thousands of immigrant children who have poured into the United States should be housed in foster homes and other small settings, not large centers as the federal government has proposed. The governor invited about 50 religious leaders and others to meet at the State House in response to the crisis that has developed along the nation's southern border as tens of thousands of unaccompanied children - many fleeing violence in Central America - have entered the country seeking refuge.
NEWS
July 18, 2014
I disagree with letter writer Rick Alvi's claim that President Obama is to blame for the recent influx of unaccompanied minors illegally crossing our border ( "Border crisis is Obama's mess," July 13). In 2008 President George W. Bush signed legislation that set guidelines on how to handle immigrant minors who are not from Mexico or Canada. It required immigration officials to take of the minors as well as help meet their health and legal needs no later than 72 hours after they were picked up. President Obama is simply following the legislation signed by Mr. Bush, and he is asking Congress to help come up with a solution.
NEWS
By Ian Duncan, The Baltimore Sun | July 17, 2014
Catholic Charities wants to care for about 50 children from Central America at a campus in Baltimore County, seeking a role in the immigration crisis even though the consideration of other sites in Maryland has met with fierce local opposition. The organization plans to apply to federal officials to house the children at St. Vincent's Villa, a residential facility on Dulaney Valley Road, Catholic Charities head William J. McCarthy Jr. confirmed Thursday night. McCarthy said housing the children would amount to his organization doing its job. "Our role and our mission is to meet the needs of these children," he said.
NEWS
July 15, 2014
The recent deluge of children from Central America entering the country illegally is not President Barack Obama's fault alone ( "America's refugee crisis," July 9). We sell chicken to Central America cheaper than farmers there can raise their own, causing them to look for other ways to feed their families. We import billions of dollars worth of drugs from the region, creating conditions that make normal life there impossible, then we complain when people try to flee. Our problem is that the difficulties we have created are so complex that no politician wants to try to solve them alone, nor would anyone be able to succeed alone.
ENTERTAINMENT
By David Zurawik and The Baltimore Sun | July 15, 2014
I can't believe how much talk about the Texas border crisis I've heard on cable news the last two weeks without any mention of the Mariel boatlift of 1980. This is textbook for what I mean about TV news -- from the network and cable level on down -- being hopelessly short on context and any sense of even recent American history. No wonder we are such an addled nation that thinks everything that comes along is the biggest, newest, baddest or best thing ever. No wonder we are such an easily confused and jangled bunch.