Yesterday, immigration attorney Jessica Dominguez announced that an eight-year-old Salvadoran girl — Veronica — was granted humanitarian parole by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to legally enter the country. “After two weeks of agonizing diplomatic wrangling and public pressure on Mexican and Salvadoran consular representatives, 8-year old migrant Verónica, a victim of molestation and rape on Mexican soil, avoided deportation to El Salvador and is now in U.S. soil safe with loved ones who are U.S. citizens,” stated a press release issued Monday by the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

Veronica’s parents paid a smuggler in El Salvador $7,000 to take her to the United States after local gang members reportedly threatened her family and demanded a monthly “protection” fee. Upon arriving in Mexico, Veronica fell into the hands of a smuggler who — along with the 17 year-old-migrant who accompanied her — sexually abused the young girl. Veronica managed to flee from her attackers in Chihuahua City and spent weeks in the hands of Mexican authorities who were considering repatriating her before she was allowed to enter the U.S. with her grandmother — a U.S. citizen.

Veronica is one of the thousands of unaccompanied child migrants who try to enter the U.S. every year. In 2009, the New York Times reported that approximately 7,200 unaccompanied minors are apprehended in the United States each year. The Center for Public Policy Priorities estimated a couple of years ago that an additional 35,000 more children are immediately expatriated to Mexico and neighboring countries. “They share stories of rape on trains rumbling toward the border, starvation in the desert and a muddled idea of what to do when they reach the States,” reports the Latin America News Dispatch.

Some juveniles who have been victims of drug abuse, abandonment or neglect may qualify for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Yet, earlier this year, the advocacy group Appleseed found that the Trafficking Victims Protection and Reauthorization Act of 2008 which is supposed to protect unaccompanied children is often ineffectively applied.

“It’s well known that the trip is dangerous, but Veronica’s parents felt they had no other choice,” wrote Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera of the El Paso Times. Most migrants who risk their lives to embark on the increasingly perilous journey to the U.S. feel the same way. “Parents should really think twice — or more than twice — before they decide to either have an adult come over, a woman by herself, or even a child,” stated Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. It’s good advice, but as long as the U.S. fails to modernize the outdated visa system and clear the backlog of family visa petitions, many migrants will likely choose not to heed it.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and former Bush administration Attorney General Michael Mukasey amped up the public debate over whether torturing terror detainees eventually led U.S. intelligence to Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. On May 6, Mukasey wrote that the info on bin Laden — specifically the name of his courier — “began with a disclosure from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM)” after he was waterboarded, while McCain publicly challenged Mukasey, writing that CIA Director Leon Panetta told him that KSM had not provided the courier’s name.

The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent obtained Panetta’s letter to McCain and pointed out that it undercuts Mukasey’s version of events. From Pannetta’s letter:

Let me further point out that we first learned about the facilitator/courier’s nom de guerre from a detainee not in CIA custody in 2002. It is also important to note that some detainees who were subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques attempted to provide false or misleading information about the facilitator/courier. These attempts to falsify the facilitator/courier’s role were alerting.

In the end, no detainee in CIA custody revealed the facilitator/courier’s full true name or specific whereabouts. This information was discovered through other intelligence means.

As Sargent points out, “Panetta’s account contradicts Mukasey’s claim that the trail to Bin Laden ‘began’ with disclosures from Khalid Sheikh Muhammed that were achieved through the ‘pressure’ of torture.”

So, Mukasey’s account is now discredited right? Not according to ABC News. ABC picked up on the story and concluded that Panetta’s statement “leaves open the possibility that both Mukasey and Panetta are correct.” But the problem here is that ABC focuses on a completely different, and somewhat less relevant point: whether KSM provided “the nickname” of bin Laden’s courier. ABC points to Panetta’s statement that “no detainee in CIA custody revealed the facilitator/courier’s full true name or specific whereabouts,” leading to its conclusion that Mukasey could also be right in that KSM provided a “nickname.”

But the other problem with this is that according to available evidence, it was actually the CIA that told KSM the nickname of bin Laden’s courier and he repeatedly misled interrogators about his identity, the New York Times reports:

But two prisoners who underwent some of the harshest treatment — including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times — repeatedly misled their interrogators about the courier’s identity. [...]

According to an American official familiar with his interrogation, Mr. Mohammed was first asked about Mr. Kuwaiti in the fall of 2003, months after the waterboarding. He acknowledged having known him but said the courier was “retired” and of little significance.

The Los Angeles Times similarly reported that “al Qaeda operations chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his successor, Abu Faraj Libbi — gave their interrogators false information about the courier.”

So Mukasey is not only wrong that the trail to bin Laden “began” with KSM, but also, it was the CIA that gave KSM the “nickname” of bin Laden’s courier, not the other way around. That doesn’t leave much room for the “possibility” that — as ABC News has it — Mukasey is correct.