Obama's Policies Are Responsible for the Flood of Children in Texas

By Michael C. Nicley on June 18, 2014

Before the immigration crisis is over in Texas, hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens, many of them minors, will have entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico this year. A large portion of the illegal aliens are from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The Obama Administration has blamed the overwhelming influx on gang violence and poverty. Hogwash. The living conditions in the source countries have been stable for years. There is certainly violence and abject poverty in Central America, but there has been no change in living conditions that would prompt an unprecedented exodus of children.

Obama's steadfast refusal to enforce our immigration laws is directly responsible for the current "humanitarian crisis." Word has spread throughout this hemisphere that America has laid a welcome mat along our southern border. When illegal alien minors are taken into custody as they enter the U.S., they are not sent back to their home country. Obama's DHS simply flies or buses them to whatever city they were headed for. Once at their final destination, Obama's DHS turns them over to a relative or a friend who may or may not be an illegal alien. The illegal alien minor, as well as the person or family taking responsibility for the minor's care, stand virtually no chance of being removed from this country as required by law.

The wave of illegal alien children and families was a predictable result of Obama's lawless policy. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of the dynamics of illegal immigration could have predicted this mess. In fact, many of us did. Hundreds of thousands of Central American aliens are now in the pipeline and we should expect their arrival over the next year.

Obama could shut the flow down by simply enforcing laws that are already on the books. As the situation stands now, illegal aliens seek out a Border Patrol agent when they cross the border. They understand that being taken into custody now means amnesty, not deportation. Instead of reinstating historic policies that prevented this sort of "humanitarian crisis," Obama has asked Congress for two billion dollars to pay for his folly. Nearly 40 percent of an agent's time is now spent processing children who will undoubtedly remain in the United States for the rest of their lives. The two billion dollars Obama is seeking will only pay for a fraction of the eventual cost to taxpayers.

During my career, I witnessed my share of boneheaded immigration policies that did more harm than good to our country. Obama has taken bad governance to a level not seen in decades.