Monday, June 16, 2014

Did President Obama's Rhetoric Create the Mess on the Border?

Silvio Canto Jr.

According to news reports from Central America, the word got around in Honduras and El Salvador that it was time to go north and get in line for some kind of legalization:

"Newspapers in El Salvador and Honduras are promoting policies by the Obama administration that defer deportation to minors brought to the United States as children by their parents — known as 'Dreamers' — and those that are housing illegal children at military bases in the South and West.

"Almost all agree that a child who crossed the border illegally with their parents, or in search of a father or a better life, was not making an adult choice to break our laws, and should be treated differently than adult violators of the law," Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson is quoted in a story about a new two-year extension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Act, according to the piece in Diario El Mundo, in El Salvador.

"Signed by President Barack Obama in 2012, the law grants temporary legal status to many young illegal immigrants, ending the threat of deportation for at least two years."

How else do you explain that thousands of unaccompanied children ended up in camps on the US-Mexico border?  They are here because they sensed an opportunity and walked 1,000 miles to go north.

To be fair, President Obama did not call on people south of the border to come north. 

At the same time, he didn't tell them to stay home, either.  Furthermore, his language, intended to pander to Hispanics, created the illusion of a ticket to some kind of legalization

How does President Obama get out of this mess?  He doesn't.  This is going to be another difficult issue for a president who's got a bunch of others on his plate.

Ron Fournier quoted a Democrat saying that President Obama is "bored" with the job.  The events on the U.S.-Mexico border are not going to make the job fun anytime soon.

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This commentary was first published by American Thinker, on Jun. 11, 2014.  Silvio Canto Jr. is the host of "Canto Talk" (www.blogtalkradio.com/cantotalk/).  Republished with permission.