When journalist Lenore Skenazy first introduced the concept of “free range parenting,” I knew it was only a matter of time before the idea would careen out of control. Free range parenting is a return to the 1960’s when kids were allowed to enjoy frightening activities like walking alone to the store, playing unsupervised in the park and remaining unwatched and unmonitored for hours at a time.

Free range is a particularly risky choice for citizens who live in a state run by leftist nannies, as Danielle and Alexander Meitiv discovered to their dismay. Their children were spotted walking home from a park located less than a mile from home.

The two were seized by local police and held until their parents could be investigated by Maryland Child Protective Services functionaries. The resulting ‘investigation’ found the Meitivs guilty of neglect.

U.S. children don’t even have to be moving under their own power for parents to have them ‘separated’ by the authorities. If mom runs into 7/11 on a hot day to buy a Powerball ticket, and leaves junior in the car with the windows down, she can be arrested for neglect even though junior is close enough to hit with a wadded-up Powerball ticket.

And the ticket isn’t the only loser. Mom will be separated from junior until she grovels enough for CPS to be satisfied.

That’s not the way Extreme Free Range parenting is practiced in Latin America.

Rango libre parents send their unaccompanied kids thousands of miles north. In the States parents can get in trouble for letting their kids chase the ice cream man. But it’s “no hay problema” when the kids are chasing Uncle Sam.

The Opposition Media ignores the fact that citizen parents are held to a higher standard than illegal parents. For that matter, Walmart shoplifters are held to a higher standard. The first action the police take after arresting the parent is to separate the children.

None of the OpMedia, leftist politicians or spineless Republicans ever ask the obvious question: What kind of parent lets their child travel hundreds of miles with strangers? What parent brings the kids along when they break the law? And how is society served by leaving children with abusive or criminally stupid parents?

That’s not rango libre parenting, it’s felony parenting.

Approximately 12,000 children are being held on our southern border. Only 2,000 of those children are with people claiming to be their parents, the other 10,000 somehow arrived by themselves.

The left claims the border situation is different. While the Walmart shopper is just another petty thief, the Hispaniard is a “refugee” seeking asylum. Just as patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, asylum is the last refuge of the illegal.

My ICE source tells me most of the asylum claims only come after the “refugee” is informed he will be sent back to his country. That’s the point in the interview when the illegal slaps his knee and says, “,B!Ay, caramba! I forgot to tell you about the death squad!”

And these are death squads with strange priorities. What is it about the landscaping community that has marked so many of them for pruning? Back during the Reagan administration (home of the one-time-only amnesty for illegals) Central American death squads targeted the elite leadership of a country. Politicians, journalists, educators, lawyers and the wealthy were all in the crosshairs.

But these days it appears instead of concentrating on movers and shakers, modern death squads are after mowers and rakers.

Another fact that works to undermine the credibility of “refugees” and their separated children is geography. If I were a battered woman or a lawn care specialist targeted for extinction, I would apply for asylum at the nearest U.S. consulate. There are four located between the southern border of Mexico and the border of Texas.

Why wait days to apply if you’re in real danger? That’s easy. They aren’t in danger and if an applicant is turned down in the interior of Mexico he’s on his own. But if he can make it to the U.S. border Uncle Sam will leave the light on and take care of food and lodging while the process grinds to a conclusion.

Now President Trump has single-handedly undermined his stringent enforcement policy by cratering and allowing illegals to keep their “children.” For a while Latin America saw there were consequences to violating U.S. immigration law. That’s gone now. The U.S. is once again provides a soft landing for foreigners characterized by recklessness, avarice and contempt for the law.

Even worse, Trump has damaged his own immigration credibility with his base. Now the left knows if they broadcast enough pictures of crying kids, Trump will once again be an immigration tigre de papel.

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Copyright 2018 Michael Shannon, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Michael Shannon is a commentator and public relations consultant, and is the author of “A Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times.” He can be reached at [email protected].