This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, July 14, 2014.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The influx of unaccompanied minors into the United States

poses a humanitarian crisis for the children affected.

Alex Narasta, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute

evaluate some options available to U.S.

policymakers.

So the unaccompanied minors coming across the border

is sort of a recent surge.

It began in 2012, between 2012 and 2013, it increased by about 50%. And we expected

this year to double over what it was last year. So eventually to be between somewhere

around 70 to 90,000 unaccompanied minors coming across the border.

And historical context is quite an increase in the numbers of unaccompanied children,

especially coming unlawfully.

But compared to stage migration, compared to the way that people typically come to this

country legally and illegally, it's not that abnormal to see kids coming on their own.

You know, oftentimes the parents come first or one parent, they set up shop, they get a job,

they get a place to live, they figure out the new society and they send for their family a year

or two or three down the line.

So part of this is just normal family reunification that we see with other immigrant groups.

It's just that in this context it's illegal immigration and there a lot of

them are being brought by smugglers. And what countries are these children coming

...