Before Republicans rush to formulate a response to the border crisis, they should first investigate the nature of the border crisis. The narrative percolating into the media from the Obama administration is that we are dealing with a sudden humanitarian crisis of unaccompanied child refugees. The implication of their narrative is that this is akin to a natural disaster that requires an immediate increase in spending to treat the crisis. Now it appears that the entire narrative is based on falsehoods.
Myth #1 – This is a sudden surge in border crossings:
We’ve known for quite some time that the Obama administration has been requesting an increase in funding for an uptick in illegal immigration. Now, the Washington Post has confirmed that the border surge was well under way in 2012 and continued to grow throughout 2013 as Congress began consideration of amnesty. The administration tried to cover up the border surge for months because it undercut their effort to push for comprehensive amnesty.
Myth #2 – The Central Americans are fleeing violence:
Once it became clear to the White House that they could no longer cover up the border surge, they sought to obfuscate the real cause of the problem and blame it on violence in Central America. While it is clear that Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador are engulfed in violence and are generally unpleasant places to raise a family, nothing has changed significantly in recent months. In fact, violence has slightly declined in recent years. The El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) drafted a memo asserting that 95% of the border-crossers interviewed cited the promise of amnesty as the primary factor behind their migration, not violence back home.
Myth #3 – They all argue this humanitarian crisis is related to “children”:
What better way to distract from open borders policies than by making this an issue primarily related to children? From listening to the media and the White House, one would come away with the impression that all of these recent arrivals are 7-year-old unaccompanied children. While the data provided by this administration is very sketchy, a recent report from CPB indicates that most of the recent arrivals who are classified as “Other than Mexicans” have come in family units. CBP claims they apprehended 57,525 unaccompanied minors from October 2013 through June 2014. But they also suggest that over 200,000 OTMs have crossed during the same time period.
Moreover, there are numerous reports about MS-13 gang members coming across the border. Astoundingly, 40% of all federal crimes in FY 2013 took place in the five border districts. According to Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, at least 25% of the recent illegal immigrants crossing into Texas have criminal records. Clearly, there is a lot more to our porous borders than small children with teddy bears fleeing violence.
Hence, even if you buy into the administration’s tenuous claim that they are hampered by deporting children, how does that explain why family units are allowed to remain in the country?
Myth #4 This is a problem that requires an immediate surge in spending:
CBO issued their score of Obama’s request for border funding and found that just $25 million of the $3.7 billion would be spent this year. That’s just .006% of the request. As we’ve known all along, this administration wants more funding in order to process and integrate these illegal aliens into our country, not to deport them.
Undoubtedly, there is an element to this border surge that represents a humanitarian crisis. But at its foundation, this is a premeditated attempt by the administration to keep our borders unsecured and import hundreds of thousands of new illegal immigrants in time to take advantage of a prospective amnesty bill. The humanitarian crisis with the children is a byproduct of that man-made problem. Republicans should act accordingly by demanding a full accounting of the data, what the president knew and when he knew it.
By using the political parlance of this administration, which in itself is built upon a series of deceptions, Republicans will be playing into Obama’s hands.
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