Obama aides knew of crisis on the border a year ago
We knew about the letter that Texas Governor Rick Perry sent to the president in 2012 warning of the coming crisis of illegal alien children flooding the border.What we didn't know was that the Department of Homeland Security had prepared a report earlier this year that graphically warned that the situation was becoming unmanageable.
The Obama administration knew and did virtually nothing to address the crisis until it became too acute to hide from Congress and the public. Washington Post:
But top officials at the White House and the State Department had been warned repeatedly of the potential for a further explosion in the number of migrant children since the crisis began escalating two years ago, according to former federal officials and others familiar with internal discussions. The White House was directly involved in efforts in early 2012 to care for the children when it helped negotiate a temporary shelter at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio................................."
Issued in August of 2013, the policy is called the “Family Interest Directive,” and it essentially forbids Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from deporting, arresting or even detaining any illegal immigrant who is the caretaker of a child. That includes parents, legal guardians and even unrelated adults who merely claim they care for the child in question. The theory behind the directive is that it would be morally wrong to separate children from their “caretakers.”
In practice, what that means on the border – and in the interior -- is that if you have a child with you, any child, you won’t be sent home. So suddenly, illegal immigrant children are a hot commodity. Unrelated adults and coyotes use them for border crossings, then abandon them at the border. Parents who in the past would have left their children behind, crossed the border and then sent money home are now bringing them along for protection from deportation. And parents and family members already in the country who showed little interest in housing and caring for these children before are now sending for them, in the process forcing these children to take terrible risks as they travel alone along the way. If they make it to the border, they end up in the hands of the US government for safe-keeping until they can be reunited with parents and relatives.........."
Tara Servatius, American Thinker - July 21, 2014: The brutal Obama policy that's really driving the Border Crisis
-----------------
".......The Obama administration knew and did virtually nothing to address the crisis until it became too acute to hide from Congress and the public..............Instead of an effort to stem the flow of illegals, the president upped the ante by amnestying DREAMers. It hardly matters that the coyotes and drug cartels who were bringing these children into the US lied to them about US policy. The fact is, the president's words made the lie believable. This led directly to the humanitarian crisis we have on the border today........." Obama aides knew of crisis on the border a year ago