Who’s to Blame for the Influx of Illegal Immigrant Children?

GUEST WORDS-As it turns out, the thousands upon thousands of illegal immigrant children pouring across our borders aren’t coming here because of “crime and violence” in their home countries as the president and the media have been reporting for weeks. 

During Tuesday’s appearance before Congress, Homeland Security Director Jeh Johnson blamed “erroneous word of mouth” spread by human traffickers as the principle cause of this latest crisis. 

He got it half right. Word of mouth is the problem, but Johnson pointed to the wrong mouth. 

More than 52,000 children have chosen this moment in time to come to the United States because of the words that came from the mouth of President Obama. 

On March 13, The New York Times reported Obama ordered a review of his administration’s enforcement efforts in order to make our deportation process more “humane.” 

On Aug. 15, 2012, the president announced the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would begin accepting applications for “deferred action for childhood arrivals,” DACA, in Washington-speak. 

In plain English: a moratorium on the deportation of people age 31 and under. 

Technically, DACA only applies to children who arrived prior to their 16th birthday and have lived here continuously since June 15, 2007. But to the millions trapped in desperately poor countries, they’re more than willing to gamble our government will be no more diligent in vetting DACA applicants than we have been enforcing any other aspect of our immigration laws. 

Once the words “deferred action” tumbled out of Obama’s mouth and the DACA press release popped up on the official White House website, parents in Central America took it to mean one thing, “permisos.” 

A free pass. 

On June 15, 2012, the Huffington Post reported Immigration and Customs Enforcement were instructed to review individual cases and prevent eligible immigrants from being put in removal proceedings. Those already in proceedings could be granted deferred action for two years, and then apply for renewal for another two years. They were also given work authorization on a case-by-case basis. 

In any language, that sounds like “permisos.” 

And speaking of “word of mouth” how about the phony boasts of increased border security we’ve been treated to for years? 

Remember when former Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano said the border was “as secure as it’s ever been” (ABC News July 26, 2013)? That came just two years after telling CBS News “the border is better now than it ever has been.” Of course a more recent whopper came on Feb. 13, 2013, when the soon-to-be chancellor of the UC system said, “Our borders have in fact never been stronger.” 

Fifty-thousand children just walked into our country. If that’s border security, God help us.

While Obama continues to blame the explosion of illegal border crossings on everything except his own disastrous policies, there’s no mystery to the folks who actually live and work on the border. 

“We’re not catching them, they’re catching us,” said Chris Cabrera, National Border Patrol Council vice president during a radio interview on KABC-AM (790). “They know our system. They know they’ll be given a hearing, and they know that often takes years.” 

And it’s not just children. Countless thousands of adults are exploiting the kiddie-chaos to slip in undetected. 

Maybe they just want to work. Maybe they just want to reunite with family members already here. And maybe they’re gang-bangers, rapists or terrorists. Nobody knows. 

With half the year still to go, 52,000 children are already warehoused in a system overwhelmed, with no letup in sight. ICE is not set up to house, feed, clothe, inoculate, educate and comfort thousands of parentless children. 

The administration wants these children placed with family or sponsors as quickly as possible, which means local communities, including Los Angeles and surrounding cities, will be receiving an influx of kids who need everything. We continue to import poverty on a grand scale while stretching local school budgets and the social safety net to the breaking point. 

We’ll know Obama is serious about stopping what is in effect state sponsored child abuse when he opens his mouth in clear, unambiguous language and tells the world our borders are closed to illegal immigrants and then makes his words a reality. 

(Doug McIntyre is morning radio host at KABC and writes for the Daily News … where this column was first posted. Doug can be reached at: [email protected])

-cw