As U.S. Frustration Deepens, Guatemala and Mexico Announce Plans to Facilitate Illegal Border Entry

By Joe Guzzardi
July 14, 2014

Here’s what the White House offers Americans as its solution to the border crisis solution: delay, deceit, deception and duplicity. Add brinksmanship for good measure. Then, as if double-dealing from its own government isn’t bad enough, Americans had their noses thumbed at them when Mexico announced that it would facilitate Central American aliens’ journeys from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to the U.S. 

Last week, President Obama threatened that if Congress doesn’t immediately pass his $3.7 billion supplemental funding measure, he would be forced to divert more money away from what’s left of interior enforcement. Obama steadfastly refused to send National Guard troops to the border, an interim solution that would have plugged the dyke until more border patrol agents could be hired, trained and activated. More than 70 percent of agents have been pulled off monitoring the border and reassigned to processing aliens.

Critics speculate that Obama knew Congress would balk at his $3.7 billion request and that more delay means an escalating crisis and a congressional showdown, apparently the president’s goal. Congressional skepticism is appropriate. About half the requested $3.7 billion would be allocated to Health and Human Services to resettle those already here. Nearly $1 billion goes to a discretionary general provision clause that would allow the administration to allocate the money randomly. Approximately $20 million would fund immigration lawyers to defend the aliens from deportation which most Republicans oppose. Only a token $100 million would be applied directly to enforcement.

Compare the administration’s proposal to U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks’. After checking airline websites, Brooks found that a one-way ticket to Central America costs about $500. The aliens could be sent home for about $25 million.  

Attorney General Eric Holder misleadingly insists that the aliens are fleeing rampant Central American violence. The true blame rests with the administration. Central America has a long history of political, economic and social instability. But since Obama’s unconstitutional 2012 deferred action for childhood arrivals program, the alien influx has doubled and is now projected to triple by year’s end. 

Unless the U.S. deports the minors immediately, an action which more than 60 percent of Americans support, illegal aliens will keep coming, thanks in part to Mexican interference. 

In a joint press conference Guatemala and Mexico, which has a long history of subverting U.S. immigration law, Presidents Otto Perez Molina and Enrique Peña Nieto audaciously announced a new program that will allow Guatemalans to legally travel through Mexico en route to their illegal entry into the U.S. Called the “Southern Border Program to Improve Passage,” the agreement grants Guatemalans a Regional Visitors Card, valid for 72 hours of legal status, ample time to reach the border. The program will also increase the number of border checkpoints along the Mexico-Guatemala border, provide protection, medical care, and financial assistance. 

Meanwhile, outside Capitol Hill and back in grassroots America where opinions should matter but rarely do, outrage has boiled over. Even Chicago’s African-American community is fed up with the unsustainable border surge. One spokesman said he wished Obama would show as much love and affection for Chicago’s struggling children as he demonstrates for the “ones across the border.” Nearly 500 aliens, none with background checks, have been sent to the Chicago area.

Obama’s strategy is brinksmanship maximized. But with powerful Democrats like House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer acknowledging that the U.S. can’t be expected to give sanctuary to every worldwide at risk child and with his voter base abandoning him, Obama must act in the nation’s best interests. Send in the National Guard and authorize deportation proceedings. Within little time, the message would reach Central America: Stop coming, the U.S. is serious about securing its borders.

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Joe Guzzardi is a Californians for Population Stabilization Senior Writing Fellow. Contact him at [email protected]