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Obama Plays Ostrich in Border Crisis
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
July 15, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Facing a tidal wave of children crossing from
Mexico into the United States, President Barack Obama wants to punt the problem
back to Congress for its lack of action on immigration reform. Whatever Obama’s political problems
in a Republican-controlled House, the president must confront waves of illegal
child immigration sweeping the U.S. borders.
Meeting with Texas Gov. Rick Perry July 9 to discuss the flood of illegal
child immigrants across the El Paso border, Texas, Obama agreed to ask Congress
for $3.7 billion for more enforcement along the 200-mile-long Texas-Mexico
border. Obama ruffled many liberal
feathers suggesting that the recent flood of illegal immigrants should be
deported back to their host countries in Central America. “He feels intensely a responsibility
to prevent an even greater humanitarian crisis,” said White Domestic Policy
Chief Cecilia Munoz.
Today’s Central American refugees are being treated differently that some
500,000 Cubans granted asylum fleeing from Castro’s Cuba in 1959. When the Cuban Mariel boatlift
resumed giving another 124,000 Cubans asylum between April and September 1980,
no one squawked about an immigration or border crisis requiring billions to beef
up the Southern U.S. border. What
made Cuban immigration legal in the U.S. was not the way in which they arrived
[on rickety boats and makeshift rafts] but the fact that they were refugees from
Castro’s communist regime. Under
former President George W. Bush’s 2008 anti-trafficking law passed by Congress
the Immigration and Naturalization Service must grant asylum to children caught
up in their country’s drug wars.
Certainly the children fleeing from gang-war-torn Central America qualifies them
for political asylum.
When Obama refused to visit the border July 8, he caused a big stir
suggesting the problem didn’t need another “photo-op.” Going to the border, like other
disaster areas, isn’t for the purpose of photo-ops but rather to underscore
symbolically the president’s commitment to fixing the problem. Pointing fingers at Obama for not
fixing the immigration problems is like the kettle calling the pot black. Whether it’s an election year or
not, Congress kicking the immigration can down the road helps no one, especially
the thousands of children now stuck in detention centers with Obama threatening
to deport them back to their war-ravaged countries. Shipping children back to their host
countries would place them in harm’s way again, violating every international
treaty protecting the rights of children.
Whether easy or not, deporting children doesn’t conform to international
norms.
Lecturing Latin American parents to stop sending their children North for
a better life in the States is no substitute for realistic immigration policy. “While we intend to do the right
thing by these children, their parents need to know this is a dangerous
situation and it is unlikely their children will be able to stay,” Obama said
while meeting with Perry July 9.
Hoping Perry can somehow influence House Republicans on immigration reform is
wishful thinking. With or without
Congress, the U.S. Justice Department under Eric Holder must apply the laws
appropriately, especially the 2008 anti-trafficking law that grants asylum to
children caught in the crosshairs of civil and drug wars. If Central American parents believe
they’re protecting their children to get them out local violence then they’re
doing their job as parents. White
House officials need to study the current border crisis more carefully before
deportations.
Since October 2013, about 52,000 Central American children have cross the
U.S. border into Texas. Perry wants
Obama to ask Congress for $4 billion in extra border enforcement. Beefing up the border, while needed to prevent other undesirables—possibly Mideast
terrorists—from threatening the U.S. homeland, doesn’t solve the problems of
intolerable living conditions in gang-war ravaged Central America. Pope Francis urged the world
community to help Central American countries resolve the conflict that currently
plagues the region. Since Obama has
no magic wand, either for Central America or the U.S. Border Patrol, the
president must deal with 52,000 orphans unable to fend for themselves. “It is contrary to everything we
stand for as a people to try to summarily send children back to death . . . “
said Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-Md.), opposed to Obama’s deportation strategy.
Looking back at mass waves of past Cuban immigration, it’s inconceivable
that deportation is the answer to the current Central American child immigration
crisis. Bush’s 2008
anti-trafficking law gives child-victims of drug and civil wars the right to
U.S. asylum. Unless Congress amends
that law, Obama has no choice but to grant the children the same status as
generations of Cubans that floated on rafts and rickety boats to reach Key West. While the GOP tabloid press tries to
make political hay before the Midterm elections, the president must apply the
law as its stands to deal with today’s immigration crisis. If Congress wishes to make it more difficult for human smugglers to penetrate the U.S.
border, then they should pony up resources to the Border Patrol. Before the White House and Congress
can agree on immigration reform, laws related to political asylum mist be
applied.
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