O'Brien: "A sixteen year old is in a position to have a conversation with their parents about coming across the border, you think?"
Farenthold: "Believe me, my sixteen year old daughter has given me some input on pretty much everything the family wants to do."
Um, Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX)? Whether or not you agree with President Obama, teens aren't exactly rolling in money, nor do they dictate to their families where and when they move to new homes, let alone countries.
Most 16-year-old children are, of course, reliant on their parents for financial support, and do not actually get a say in where their families move. And the President is right that many children don’t know their immigration status until much later — when they apply for a job or a drivers’ license.
When my family moved to our new digs thirty minutes away from our old ones, my then-ten-year-old kids were unhappy about it and expressed their feelings clearly, but we had to move where we could afford a home, where there were good schools, and a zillion other factors.
No amount of protest or encouragement from my children would have changed anything, unfortunately for them. They hated moving to our present house until they got acclimated, because change is difficult for them, as it is for so many. (They ended up loving the place, by the way)
If they had said, "Hey, let's move to Beverly Hills or London," well, sorry, but that wasn't going to happen, no matter how much "input" they gave us, Blake. Maybe the adults don't make those decisions in your household.
When someone has been uprooted by their parents and moved to the U.S. and lived here for most of their lives, then this is their only real home, the one with which they are familiar, the one to which they are loyal, and so for all intents and purposes, they are Americans.
Sending children back to a place that is now strange to them, where they may not even speak the language, separating them from people and places they love and know, that's okay with the GOP.
Family values, my ass.
The post VIDEO- GOP Congressman: 16-year-olds can make own immigration decisions. His teen argues about “everything the family wants to do” appeared first on The Political Carnival.