'Crisis' label deflects responsibility for migrant children, says ASU professor

"The conventional characterization of the day regarding the situation with Central America migrant children heading to the United States is one that simply is not based on reality," argue Arizona State University professor Cecilia Menjivar and Nestor Rodriguez of the University of Texas at Austin in a recent op-ed they co-wrote for the Houston Chronicle.

According to the professors, "The media, public officials and politicians have all contributed to create an image of this migration flow as a crisis, but Central American children have migrated unaccompanied to the United States by the thousands for decades."

Menjivar is a professor in ASU's T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynmamics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Rodriguez is a professor of sociology at UT Austin.