Not border crisis, but humanitarian

The recent influx of children immigrants from Central America was inevitable. These are innocent minors who are not bringing violence into the United States, but rather escaping the dangers of their country.

I am grateful that we have a senator who takes pride in a nation that roots itself in diversity and understands that immigration reform takes fear out of the undocumented.

In July, Sen. Dick Durbin visited with a Chicago shelter housing immigrant children who fled their predestined lives - gangs, human trafficking, domestic violence - in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. The senator realizes this is not a border crisis, but a humanitarian crisis.

He has worked endlessly to find solutions for immigration reform while Speaker John Boehner and House leadership sit on a bipartisan immigration reform bill that the Senate passed last year. And since then, the U.S. loses $37 million each day due to our broken immigration system.

The children who crossed our border are a reminder that our country needs to work with the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. to better their lives and the nation as a whole. Giving the immigrants a path toward U.S. citizenship could help put $1 trillion into our economy and reduce the nation's debt.

I am grateful that we have a senator that wants our nation to be recognized as a country that cares and did its best in facing a humanitarian crisis.

Greg Hosé

Downers Grove