Administration Has the Power but not the Will to End Border Crisis

By Joe Guzzardi
July 18, 2014

Recent polling shows that more than 60 percent of Americans disapprove of President Obama’s handling of the Central American immigration crisis. Connecticut, Maryland, Colorado, Delaware, Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont and Virginia strongly oppose federal efforts to house alien children in their states. Iowa’s Governor Terry Branstad summarized his peers’ sentiment when he said: “The first thing we need to do is secure the border.” Oklahoma, Nebraska and Illinois learned after the fact that illegal immigrants had been settled in their states. They were outraged.  

Most Americans reject advocates’ argument that the children are fleeing violence. Many have noted that the so called “children” include a suspiciously high number of teenage males and pregnant women. Taxpayers balk at the administration’s request for $3.7 billion in additional funding, most of which would go to house, feed and medically treat the aliens but allocates little for border security.

Despite it all, Obama pays slight attention. His earlier promises to move swiftly to return the aliens are no longer part of the dialogue. To the contrary, at a closed door meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Obama made no commitment to support a change in the 2008 law that allows Central Americans to stay until an immigration court adjudicates their cases. Canadian and Mexican illegal entrants can be immediately deported. During the two-hour session, Obama ignored U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), a CHC member whose proposed bipartisan bill with Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) would, among other things, expedite the children’s removal. 

In a related congressional development, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi proposed that the only change in the 2008 law should be to decelerate deportations of Mexicans and Canadians and to give them the same due process currently available to Central Americans. Since 30 percent of illegal immigration comes from Mexico and less that 2 percent from Canada, Pelosi’s suggestion if adopted would effectively double down on Mexican unlawful entry.  

Obama and the CHC would like Americans to believe that the president is powerless to act on his own to end childhood arrivals and to deport those already here. But immigration history tells a different story. In his fascinating column posted on ILW.com Dan Vera, a former INS District Council compares today’s Central American surge to the 1980’s Nicaraguan South Texas influx that was, in his words, “easily handled in less than a week after it began” by using existing laws.

As Vera explained the Nicaraguan surge, after a couple of teleconferences with key immigration officials, the group implemented an action plan that “crushed the mass migration effort.” Tent cities were set up on the southern border, aliens were held rather than released, and immigration judges were flown in to hold hearings in place. The aliens were presented to an Executive Office for Immigration Review judge who read a charging document. Unless the alien could prove a basis for relief, he was ordered deported. Today, instead of immediate border hearings, aliens are given a court date months later. Only a few show up. 

Vera notes that the Nicaraguan removal process started with “a nod from the president [Ronald Reagan].”  Obama, however, has no interest in enforcing immigration law; he prefers “catch and release,” which forces border patrol agents to set aliens free. As a result, through 2012, the whereabouts of nearly 850,000 fugitive aliens is unknown.

The Malaysia Airline tragedy will further delay the already bogged down congressional haggling over Central American funding. As the process grinds on with no immediate resolution in sight, alarmed citizens are increasingly aware that Obama simply doesn’t care what happens to the historic American nation.

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Joe Guzzardi is a Californians for Population Stabilization Senior Writing Fellow whose columns have been syndicated since 1987. Contact him at [email protected]