(People's World) -- Since 2011, the number of "unaccompanied" children, mostly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has been skyrocketing. Already since October 2013, 52,000 have arrived, and the total may reach 90,000 by December 2014.
Republicans and the right claim that this surge in child migration is caused by the Obama administration's "lax" immigration enforcement policies, like the DACA program - Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals - started in 2012. This program suspends deportation and grants work permits to undocumented people who arrived with their families when they were children, who came before 2007 and who have not reached 31 years of age. Otherwise, the Obama administration's immigration policies have not been "lax" at all, with record numbers of deportations. Furthermore, children are also seeking refuge in other countries in the region including Nicaragua and Belize, which are very poor.