The Christian Science Monitor reports on the tidal wave of would-be DREAMers (that would be Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) seeking the ministrations of Barack Obama in a story by Mark Sappenfield. Sappenfield doesn’t put it that way, but his account rightly notes that “the numbers are stark.” He writes:
The Obama administration has linked the trend [of unaccompanied minors crossing the border] to unrest in Central American countries, but Republican critics say an executive action that the president took in 2012 is to blame, calling the situation “an administration-made disaster.”
President Obama delayed rolling out new deportation reforms in late May partly because [he] did didn’t want to further anger Republicans who accuse him of unconstitutionally bypassing Congress to set immigration policy. Now, if he proceeds, he will have to fend off fresh claims that the very policies he has set have pushed the country into crisis.
At issue is Mr. Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which in 2012 allowed some undocumented immigrants who came to America as minors to defer deportation for two years. Last week, the administration announced guidelines for how these immigrants could defer deportation for a further two years.
DACA would not apply to anyone coming across the border today. Only undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US as minors before June 15, 2007, are eligible. But to Republican critics, DACA created the opportunity for misinformation and confusion.
“Word has gotten out around the world about President Obama’s lax immigration enforcement policies and it has encouraged more individuals to come to the United States illegally,” said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R) of Virginia, a key broker in immigration reform efforts on Capitol Hill, in a statement last week.
The numbers are stark.
During the decade preceding fiscal year 2012, the federal government agency tasked with caring for unaccompanied minors who cross the border illegally dealt with an average of 7,000 to 8,000 cases a year, according to a Department of Health and Human Services fact sheet. In fiscal year 2011, the number was 6,560.
The following year, however, the number jumped to 13,625. This fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, 2014, federal officials are estimating that the number could be 80,000, according to an internal memo cited by The New York Times.
John Hayward draws the obvious inferences at Human Events. He asks: “Has there ever been a more obvious case of cause and effect?” Hayward has a broader case to make, but essentially what we have here are DREAMers From My President and the whole amnesty crowd.
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