I don’t understand why the AWOL parents can’t be charged with state crimes. Child endangerment, etc. If you or I abandoned our kids in the desert we would be facing long prison terms. Are they claiming asylum and immigration law trumps state law? Or are Abbott and Ducey just Chamber of commerce owned wimps?
OK, that’s a different question - a novel question. I wouldn’t think the immigration rulings would in any way, materially impact the state’s ability to enforce it’s own child welfare laws. Just like the state can preempt the supremacy of the feds in immigration, the feds can’t preempt the police power of the states.
But, there are two issues. The first is these kids are being abandoned in Mexico or even before, like in Guatemala. So the actual crime of child abonnement is happening in another country making jurisdiction a potential hurdle to overcome.
The second issue is even if you can arrest an adult and successfully prosecute them, then what? You still stuck caring for the abandoned child and you have to pay for the parent’s incarceration. So long as there’s a Dem in the White House refusing to enforce immigration law by refusing to arrest and detain illegals who fail to show for deportation hearings, we’re in the same boat.