Assuming lawmakers are interested in looking for one, Congress has a bipartisan immigration fix right under its noses. It\u2019s what the Obama administration tried, but failed, to do.<\/p>\n
As more Central American caravans<\/a> arrive with children at the U.S. border, Congress must address the \u201cpull factors\u201d that entice migrants to expose themselves, and especially minors, to the predations of criminal enterprises along the way.<\/p>\n One of the more perverse magnets is the Flores v. Reno <\/a>consent decree issued by a federal court in California.<\/p>\n In 2015, District Judge Dolly Gee ruled that the 1997 settlement agreement applied to minors who arrived in the company of parents. Ostensibly aimed to protect minors, Gee\u2019s order left the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unable to keep any family that arrives at the border without a legal status together and in its custody for more than 20 days.<\/p>\n \u201cTragically, adults have learned to exploit this. They know they can avoid being detained and can secure a quick release into the U.S.\u00a0interior by taking one or more children on what is, at best, a barren trek without basic sanitation or medical care,\u201d says Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, ranking Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sobering reality is that border agents report parents giving young girls birth control as a matter of course before the trip north because predators sexually assault one in three females on this journey,\u201d Collins wrote in an op-ed<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n Seeing the obvious problem, the Obama administration sought to carve out<\/a> an exception for minors who had arrived in the U.S. with their parents. The administration wanted to detain some migrants for as long as it took to process their cases.<\/p>\n Collins noted that Obama\u2019s legal team argued that the carve-out was \u201cessential to respond to the current and future surges of persons (including families) seeking to enter without lawful status.\u201d<\/p>\n Judge Gee said no.<\/p>\n Belatedly, Republicans on Capitol Hill have taken up the cause. As GOP Sens. Charles Grassley (Iowa), Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Ted Cruz (Texas)<\/a> declared: \u201cOne simple step could have prevented the family separations we now decry: repealing the\u00a0Flores consent decree as it relates to families.\u201d<\/p>\n