During his radio program yesterday, conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh spoke at length about the border crisis, calling it an “all-out assault on what this country used to be,” and specifically cited reporting by Breitbart Texas on this issue.
Summarizing the nature of the crisis, Limbaugh described the surge of children who were coming from Central America, and how the Obama administration’s implementation of our immigration laws were motivating parents to send their children to cross the border without them:
…These are “unaccompanied alien children,” and they have a name, UACs, and they are from Central America, which means El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua. Not Mexico. And they are “pouring in.”
They’re pouring into Arizona and they’re pouring into Texas, which has consequences. When they get across the border they are being “transferred to Border Patrol facilities elsewhere along the border — US government officials are scrambling to find places to put them.” Here’s the problem: “[B]ased on current immigration and asylum laws, the vast majority of those children could be legally staying right here in the United States before long.”
Here’s what’s at work here: “Under the authority of the Homeland Security Act, the federal government transfers custody of illegal immigrant children who are apprehended alone at our borders to the Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).” There is such a place. The Office of Refugee Resettlement. It’s just… They’re refugees. That’s exactly what they are.
“The ORR’s primary goal is to reunite them with a family member or legal guardian already here in the US (regardless of their legal status) while the child goes through removal proceedings,” but they try to track down any relative of the child. “As Breitbart Texas recently reported, UACs receive a bevy of assistance while in ORR custody, including classroom education, health care, socialization/recreation, vocational training, mental health services, family reunification…”
They get more than is being passed out at the VA. Let’s just put it all on the table. I’ll go through the list again. Here’s what these kids get by virtue of current law the minute they cross the border: “classroom education, health care, socialization/recreation, vocational training, mental health services, family reunification.”
That’s a big one, particularly if the family is not here. The refugee crowd goes and tries to find ’em in their Central American native country and bring them here — and that’s the real objective. But before we get to that they get “access to legal services,” these kids do, “and case management. In many cases, they are treated better than US citizen children currently in the foster care system.”
Limbaugh continued to discuss this story, describing in detail the pro bono legal services provided to these children, and how the current implementation of the law was structured so as to make the vast majority of them potentially eligible to remain in America. Section 462 of the Homeland Security Act did transfer responsibility over all unaccompanied minor children to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, as well as describe requirements and standards for the treatment and services provide for these children.
Limbaugh concluded the segment by stating that the “reality” of this situation “flies right in the face of the rhetoric” from the Obama administration and DHS officials that the border crisis was not their making.
But if 90% [of the unaccompanied minor children] are eligible for amnesty and get all these services by virtue of law, then how can their claim that they’ve got nothing to do with this possibly hold water? So it is an all-out assault, folks, on what this country used to be, all-out assault. You and I, the Tea Party Republican base, are the only ones standing in the way of it.
Read full transcript of segment from the June 17, 2014 Rush Limbaugh Show here.
Sarah Rumpf is a political and communications consultant living in Austin. You can follow her on Twitter at @rumpfshaker.