It's amazing how leaders from other countries can clearly identify the cause for the ongoing border crisis, but most of ours here in Washington haven't a clue. In an interview with Time on Wednesday, and then again in a press conference on Thursday, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez blamed the lack of clarity in U.S. immigration policy as the true cause for enticing hundreds of thousands of Central Americans to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.
In
response to his statement, you can expect the pro-amnesty champions --
Pres. Obama, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and the like -- to race to the nearest
microphone in their call for "comprehensive immigration reform", but in
reality, U.S. immigration law is pretty clear:
Any alien who enters or attempts to enter the United States without inspection shall be put into removal proceedings.
But in 2011, the Obama Administration issued a set of memos, the
"Morton Memos", that deferred any action against many classes of illegal
aliens, and in 2012, his DACA directive granted work permits to younger
illegal aliens.
And just this week, it was reported that 18 of 20 newly-arrived illegal aliens failed to show up for their immigration court hearing in Dallas. Again, U.S. law requires the aliens to be ordered removed if they fail to show for a hearing, but instead, Judge Michael Baird, who replaced a tougher judge earlier this year, granted new hearings for all 18.
The
law is clear, but few in Washington acknowledge it or want to
acknowledge it. Instead, the House working group formed by Speaker John
Boehner (R-Ohio) focused their recommendations
this week on a 2008 law that deals solely with the processing of
Unaccompanied Alien Children. We agree that the 2008 law needs to be
changed, but it only addresses a fraction of the problem. According to
the New York Times,
only 1 in every 5 illegal border crossers this year is a UAC -- and it
may be even less since the definition for UACs is being incorrectly
applied by the Administration.
More
than a dozen lawmakers in Washington, including the duo from Texas
(Sen. John Cornyn & Rep. Henry Cuellar), have offered their own
rewrites to the 2008 law. But only Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep.
Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and a handful of cosponsors, have
legislation that gets to the root of the problem -- the Obama
Administration's granting of amnesty to large classes of illegal aliens.
The Cruz/Blackburn bills would end Pres. Obama's 2012 executive
amnesties and prevent future ones from taking effect. Don't forget that
Pres. Obama has already promised to expand his 2012 directives to cover
5-6 million illegal aliens later this year.
Even
Gang of Eight member, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), has came around after
meeting with officials from Honduras and El Salvador.
Because the recent wave from Central America spiked after DACA was announced, it is in our interest to wind down this program.
-- Sen. Rubio on Thursday
Has
Speaker Boehner come around? Based on reports of today's morning
meeting, he's more focused on the recommendations set forth by the House
working group and less on confronting Pres. Obama and his unwillingness
to enforce immigration laws.
Your
efforts in this fight continue to be amazing and have had an effect in
moving the dialogue in Washington! Our focus this week was much more on
phone calls since the situation is more urgent. Congress is scheduled to
break at the end of next week for its month-long August recess, and
Speaker Boehner will likely want to pass something before the break.
Please
call your three Members of Congress and urge them to oppose any border
plan that doesn't include a provision to end Pres. Obama's executive
amnesties. We're also posting new faxes to your Action Board as we learn about new bills and cosponsorships, so continue to check your Board on a regular basis for any actions.
| chris chmielenski |
| Fri, July 25th |
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