“AN ADMINISTRATION-MADE DISASTER”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Jun. 25, 2014) — On Wednesday beginning at 2:00 p.m. EDT, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing entitled, “An Administration-Made Disaster: The South Texas Border Surge of Unaccompanied Minors.”
Since last October, U.S. Border Patrol Agents have been overwhelmed by tens of thousands of illegals from Central American countries crossing the Mexico-Texas border, many of them children appearing to be traveling alone.
For many, the trip is reportedly dangerous, at times expensive, and traumatizing to children, according to The Los Angeles Times.
The holding centers for the illegals are overcrowded and reportedly unsanitary. The Obama regime ordered some relocated to U.S. military bases in Oklahoma, California and Texas where swine flu and “deadly contagious diseases” have been reported.
Gang members have also been allowed to enter the country as Obama said it was “shameful” that stricter firearms laws have not been passed by Congress.
After “processing” at the holding centers, illegals are released into American communities with an order to appear for a hearing within 15 days, which many never observe.
In 2006, WND reported that illegal aliens accounted for 12 American lives each day as a result of drunk drivers, theft, homicide, and child abuse.
Testifying on Wednesday will be Brandon Judd, President of the National Border Patrol Council, the labor union to which Border Patrol agents belong. Judd’s prepared remarks decry the Obama regime’s “catch and release” policy which apprehends individuals in the country illegally but then “ignores” them, according to Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies in a report on 2013 illegal-alien removals.
In the report, Vaughan stated that while Border Patrol agents apprehended “722,000 potentially deportable aliens” last year, the number of removals from the country by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was much lower, with 68,000 known criminals released into society.
Vaughan also stated that numbers cited by the Obama regime of actual deportations include illegals caught by Border Patrol agents, which have not traditionally been included in such statistics. Vaughan explained, “Such cases made up the majority of ICE’s reported deportations in 2013, but they had never been counted that way in previous administrations.5 Although former DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano denied that the ICE reports on her watch were misleading, her successor, Jeh Johnson, recently admitted to a House committee that the administration’s deportation figures are not comparable to previous administrations because of the large number of border removal cases.6“
Judd’s testimony will say that “Our borders are constantly under attack by multi-national drug cartels and this latest surge in unaccompanied minors is just another example. These cartels have a well-developed intelligence network and are very skilled at exploiting our shortages in manpower. It is no coincidence that many of the same cartels responsible for the violence in Central America are also making hundreds of millions of dollars smuggling unaccompanied children (UAC) across the border. In fact, the current surge has made all aspects of smuggling easier by tying up Border Patrol Agents with large groups of UACs.”
On June 19, The Post & Email reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in January had publicly sought “escort services” to include “Transportation/Travel/Relocation Services” for ICE’s “continuing and mission critical responsibility for accepting custody of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) from U.S. Border Patrol and other Federal agencies and transporting these juveniles to Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) shelters located throughout the United States.”
Children have been transported all over the country after arriving illegally in the U.S. Federal law dictates that within 72 hours, unaccompanied minors must be released to the Department of Health and Human Services’ (DHHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) for possible unification with a family member already in the country. DHHS considers the children “refugees.”
The American taxpayer is funding the illegals’ stay and benefits in the United States, perhaps indefinitely. Many illegals reportedly make the trip to the U.S. border upon rumors of a “free pass.”
In testimony on Tuesday, Obama’s new DHS chief told the House Committee on Homeland Security that he was “stumped” over the surge in unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border.
The Judiciary Committee stated on its website that “Many of the Obama Administration’s policies, such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the virtual rubberstamping of ‘credible fear’ claims at the border, have led to this sudden surge of minors arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.”
On June 11, putative Vice President Joseph Biden told a meeting of the National Association of Manufacturers that the United States needs a “constant, unrelenting stream of new immigrants” to meet economic needs.
On May 13, Obama said publicly that adhering to current immigration law “isn’t smart.” Obama has also chosen not to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act, his own health care law, and laws against voter intimidation in case which arose in Philadelphia in November 2008 involving members of The New Black Panthers.
The leader of an organization representing retired Border Patrol officers, George Taylor, told The Post & Email that illegals seeking to further the drug trade in the U.S. have established “distribution pipelines” to all points in the country, which he considers racketeering prosecutable under federal law. Children residing in the U.S. with illegals have brought heroin to their public-school classrooms on at least two occasions.
Some churches are sponsoring illegals after they are processed.
Some fear that Obama’s policies will lead to the “collapse” of Border Patrol capabilities.
On Tuesday, The Blaze reported that a “border health care official” said that “area hospitals have diagnosed cases of infectious diarrhea, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, scabies, chickenpox, and growing numbers of sexually transmitted diseases” among the illegals admitted to the country.
Obama has called the overwhelming number of illegals crossing the border “a humanitarian crisis,” but Taylor disagreed, having called the “crisis” “orchestrated.” On June 12, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer wrote in a letter to leaders in the U.S. House and Senate, “Our country is in the midst of a crisis manufactured by President Obama and his administration’s refusal to enforce our nation’s immigration laws. As a result, thousands of people from Central America — including unaccompanied children — are flooding into the United States and not fleeing from, but surrendering to, United States Border Patrol officials.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert Goodlatte, who is not seeking re-election in November, said that the Obama regime’s “refusal” to enforce standing immigration law “has resulted in a crisis of his own making along our southern border. Word has spread around the world about the Obama Administration’s lax immigration enforcement policies and it has encouraged thousands of children, teenagers, and families from Central America to come to the United States illegally. This surge shows no signs of stopping and could potentially get worse if President Obama further dismantles more of our immigration laws in August. At this week’s hearing, we will hear from those who are witnessing the disastrous effects of the President’s policies firsthand and will also demand answers from officials at the Department of Homeland Security on how they plan to quell this activity.”
Judd believes that illegals should not be “rewarded for breaking the law.”
Live streaming of the hearing can be found here.