On Immigration, Obama Ignores the Will of the Majority of Americans

The immigration crisis is very visible but President Obama doesn't want to see it.~~~~~ Senior Obama administration officials told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday they're struggling to keep up with the surge of immigrants at the southern border, admitting they've been overwhelmed as children arrive by the tens of thousands from violence-torn Central America. The US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner said the number of children picked up since October now stands at 57,000, up from 52,000 in mid-June, and more than double what it was at the same time last year.Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate told the Senators : "The unaccompanied children are not yet being processed by the Border Patrol as quickly as required. Although we have made progress, that progress is oftentimes disrupted when we see sudden influxes of kids coming in faster than we can discharge them, and we back up." Fugate addressd the need for funds : "We have very very small children who early in this process were spending far too long in a detention facility," adding that the extra money President Obama wants would "ensure these children are properly cared for while they are in our custody." Republican Senator Ron Johnson answered that the government should be working to prevent the children from coming in the first place, insisting that immediately flying them back to their home countries would cost less and signal US intolerance for those who enter the country illegally. Republicans again questioned the administration's competence and attacked Obama's policies, blaming his efforts to relax some deportation rules - in order to give every child a hearing - for contributing to rumors circulating in Central America that once here, migrant kids would be allowed to stay. Senator John McCain said a high percentage of the children fleeing El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala are able to succeed in their goal of staying in America because they're issued notices to appear at court hearings in the distant future, and many never do. "Your odds are pretty good," McCain said. Some critics are calling the appearance notices "disappearance notices." Senator Johnson also criticized a campaign of ads the administration is mounting in Central America telling people not to come here. "They do nothing..." Johnson said. ~~~~~ President Barack Obama has asked Congress to give him $3.7 billion in emergency spending to deal with the crisis that has become a political hot potato for him, opening a fierce debate on Capitol Hill and beyond. Obama seeks $1.6 billion for the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice to bolster customs and border efforts, as well as to crack down on smugglers, and $300 million for the State Department to help Mexico and Central American governments counter what officials called "misinformation" by smugglers about what immigrants will face on the journey to the US border and once they arrive. The request also includes $1.8 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services to provide care for unaccompanied children crossing the border. Government officials said that money would allow the United States to meet its legal and moral obligations for such youngsters now being crammed in overcrowded facilities in several states while awaiting processing. On Tuesday, the Pentagon said it was processing requests from HHS to house more minors, and Defense Department spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said the military has beds for 3,600 children and is being asked for 5,000 for up to 120 days. In addition, Obama's emergency spending request would add more judges to the court system. But congressional Republicans arz questioning the request. House Speaker John Boehner was noncommittal about whether the House would vote on it : "The President's request, it's all more about continuing to deal with the problem. We've got to do something about sealing the border and ending this problem so that we can begin to move on with the bigger question of immigration reform." ~~~~~ Republicans and those Democrats who say the President hasn't responded quickly and forcefully enough to the mounting crisis see his decision to skip a border visit while in Texas as additional proof of his mishandling of the crisis. The President was in Texas Wednesday for Democratic Party fundraising events but resisted visiting the border area ti see for himself the chaotic situation. Instead, he planned to meet in Dallas with faith leaders and Texas officials, including Republican Governor Rick Perry. Perry, a possible 2016 GOP presidential candidate, has been scathing in his criticism of Obama, saying the White House has failed to respond to his repeated warnings about a flood of minors at the border. But on Tuesday Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said the White House was not worried about the optics of the President traveling to Texas without visiting the border. Not many Republicans or Democrats agree. For the President to make a trip to Texas - the epicenter of the immigration influx - to attend Democratic Party fundraising events, and after some political squabbling, a meeting with Governor Perry, but avoid the border, is unthinkable. Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas told CNN on Wednesday : "This is a real crisis and the President needs to treat it as such and I think traveling from Dallas to the border is a 500-mile trip. That's not far to go on Air Force One." ~~~~~ Obama administration officials say they want more flexibility to turn the unaccompanied children around more quickly, since current law requires minors from countries other than Mexico or Canada to go through the court system in what is often a lengthy process. But immigrant advocates and some Democrats disagree, arguing that it would jeopardize the children's legal protections and put them at risk. The Justice Department says it is changing its priorities in order to better respond to the crisis. Juan Osuna, director of the executive office of immigration review, testified that deportation cases involving unaccompanied child immigrants and parents traveling with children would be moved to the top of court dockets. That means lower priority cases will take even longer to make their way through a court system that currently has a backlog of more than 360,000 pending deportation cases. Republican Senators argue that the solution is to change a 2008 law signed by former President George W. Bush that requires deportation hearings before sending back children from countries that do not border the United States. Senator Cornyn said : "I don't think we can solve the problem unless we revisit" the law. Democrats, however, want to keep the law intact to ensure that any children who deserve asylum get due process in the form of a full hearing. Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat of Cuban descent who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said : "Each child should be able to make their case as to why they qualify. Many will be sent back but others will qualify. I'm not inclined to support any policy change that ultimately undermines existing aw and would violate the right of someone who is actually a legitimate refugee." ~~~~~ But, dear readers, the 2008 Bush law was passed unanimously by both the House and Senate to prevent child trafficking at a time before the current crisis existed. Canadian and Mexican children could easily be processed and returned home with the help of bordering country immigration officials. For other children, processing was more difficult and so to prevent them from being trafficked, due process rules were enacted. Today, the unaccompanied children are not being trafficked, they are being sent to the US deliberately by their families. And experts believe Obama will make changes to put all children with relatives in the US in their custody and thereby escape deportation altogether. THUS -- President Obama continues to “fundamentally transform the United States of America” by flooding it with illegal immigrants that will result in the creation of a new permanent underclass dependent on government, and the Democratic Party. Opinion polls show the American public disapproves of this transformation and a majority also disapprove of President Obama. The easiest solution to “immigration reform” is to first secure the border and then deal with the illegal aliens already here, children anf adults. Polls show the public favors this approach by large majorities. "The fundamental principle of the government is that the will of the majority is to prevail." --Thomas Jefferson, 1801.