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Children on the Run By THE EDITORIAL BOARD<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/opinion/editorialboard.html>JUNE 4, 2014 Along the southern border, particularly in Texas, a rising influx of young unauthorized migrants crossing the border with their parents - or, more alarmingly, alone - has overwhelmed the Border Patrol and sent the federal government scurrying for a coordinated response. Its first action was the right one: the creation of a top-level task force including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services to care for the unaccompanied children. It is unclear what will happen next to stem the flow or to resolve the uncertain status of the young arrivals, many of whom may have legitimate claims to stay as refugees. But administration officials, custodians of a tenacious deportation policy, deserve credit for recognizing that this is not a border-security crisis but a humanitarian one, fueled by growing violence and instability in the countries feeding the influx: Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. The United Nations high commissioner for refugees issued an alarming paper<http://www.unhcrwashington.org/sites/default/files/UAC_Children%20On%20the%20Run_Executive%20Summary_May2014.pdf> last month affirming what The Times<http://www.unhcrwashington.org/sites/default/files/UAC_Children%20On%20the%20Run_Executive%20Summary_May2014.pdf> and other news organizations, notably the magazine Mother Jones<http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/child-migrants-surge-unaccompanied-central-america>, have also reported: that spiraling criminal violence and fear of gangs have sent thousands, including many more younger children and girls, on a desperate journey...... http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/05/opinion/children-on-the-run.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0