"The White House said the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border is dropping significantly."
So he is going to go down there and get them!
"Obama looks at screening children in Honduras" New York Times July 25, 2014
NEW YORK — Hoping to stem the recent surge of migrants at the Southwest border, the Obama administration is considering whether to allow hundreds of minors and young adults from Honduras into the United States without making the dangerous trek through Mexico, according to a draft of the proposal.
If approved, the plan would direct the government to screen thousands of children and youths in Honduras to see if they can enter the United States as refugees or on emergency humanitarian grounds.
It would be the first American refugee effort in a nation reachable by land to the United States, the White House said, putting the violence in Honduras on the level of humanitarian emergencies in Haiti and Vietnam, where such programs have been conducted in the past amid war and major crises.
We sent the Haitians back!
Critics of the plan said it appeared to redefine the legal definition of a refugee and would only increase the flow of migration to the United States.
Hasn't he done enough of that already?
Administration officials said they believed the plan could be enacted by executive action, without congressional approval, as long as it did not increase the total number of refugees coming into the country.
Really pushing it, aren't you?
By moving refugee claims to Honduras, the plan aims to slow the rush of minors crossing into the United States illegally from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, which has overwhelmed the border. More than 45,000 unaccompanied minors from those three nations have arrived since Oct. 1, straining federal resources, US Homeland Security has said.
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"Obama, presidents meet on immigration crisis" by Michael D. Shear and Ashley Parker | New York Times July 26, 2014
WASHINGTON — President Obama urged the presidents of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador to do everything they can to stem the flow of migrant children toward the United States when he met with them Friday at the White House.
The president called the meeting with Juan Orlando Hernández of Honduras, Otto Pérez Molina of Guatemala, and Salvador Sánchez Cerén of El Salvador to emphasize the importance of striking at the root causes of what he has called a humanitarian crisis on the border between Mexico and the United States.
Obama pressed them to do more to persuade their citizens not to make the dangerous journey to America.
He urged the presidents to amplify the public message that most people trying to get into the United States would not be permitted to stay. He also asked the leaders to do more to combat the smugglers who, for a price, are transporting the children....
The high-profile meeting came as the administration continued to press Congress for more resources and authority to confront the flood of migrants, especially children....
GOP lawmakers said Friday they were attempting to coalesce behind a narrow package of changes to address the problem, the Associated Press reported.
Those changes include sending National Guard troops to the border, increasing the number of US immigration judges, and changing a law so that migrant youths arriving by the tens of thousands could be sent home more quickly.
The package would cost less than $1 billion, several lawmakers said, far less than the $3.7 billion Obama requested to deal with the crisis.
A number of Republicans leaving a special meeting on the issue in the Capitol said they wanted to act before leaving Washington late next week for their annual August recess, the AP said.
‘‘It would be a terrible message; leave town in August without having done anything, knowing that it’s going to create even more of a crisis on the border,’’ said Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania. ‘‘Doing nothing in my view means that these children will be sent from the border back to communities like mine.’’
House Democrats called on Republicans to act on the spending bill without contentious policy changes attached that would cost Democratic votes and imperil Senate support....
Conservatives also expressed concerns that anything the House passed could become a vehicle for the Senate to attach conditions House Republicans oppose, even including the Senate-passed comprehensive immigration reform bill with a path to citizenship for millions.
On Thursday — in meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill and in a discussion at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research group in Washington — the presidents of Guatemala and Honduras placed much of the blame for the current border crisis on the United States.
While they said they were working to crack down on drug trafficking and violence in their own countries, they also called on the United States to share in the responsibility for the crisis.
Hernández, of Honduras, pointed in part to “the ambiguity that has been the hallmark of the debate of the reform of the immigration process in this country.”
“Here we have to say that the coyotes, the smugglers, who are very much a part of organized crime networks, perversely have sought to exploit those ambiguities and peddle a mistaken, a totally wrong interpretation to the parents of these children in saying, ‘You can get your kids in the US, we can do it for you,’” Hernández said in his remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
He added that while “those coyotes, those smugglers are nothing other than the human face of an enormous criminal monster that has one foot firmly in the camp of the drug lords and in Central America,” the other “second foot is here in the United States under American jurisdiction.”
He has the nerve to say that after the U.S. put in in power after a coup?
Administration officials reject the idea that Obama’s policies — including stopping deportations for young immigrants who were brought to the United States as children — are responsible for creating any confusion about who will be allowed to stay in the country.
It is unclear whether the White House plans to announce new financial assistance for the Central American countries to help combat the drugs and violence that are causing many of their citizens to flee.
This guy is tossing money around the world while doling out chump change here at home! What a sphincter!
Administration officials declined to say whether there might be any announcements of additional aid after the meeting.
Obama also used the meeting to pressure US lawmakers to act on his request for emergency funding before they leave Washington for their summer break.
All the trouble this country is in and they are going to go on recess?
That debate over how to handle the migrant children has all but stalled on Capitol Hill, where Senate Democrats and House Republicans this week unveiled competing proposals for Obama’s request for emergency funds.
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Related: The myths of illegal immigration
That's conventional wisdom for you.
Obama must clear his own path on immigration
Could lead an article or two of impeachment:
"Obama takes impeachment talk seriously" Associated Press July 26, 2014
WASHINGTON — One of President Obama’s top advisers said Friday that the White House takes seriously the possibility that House Republicans could pursue impeachment of the president.
If they were truly fulfilling their oaths they would.
Senior White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer told reporters Friday that the GOP has already ‘‘opened the door for impeachment’’ by contemplating suing the president over his use of executive authority.
Pfeiffer said any further executive action Obama may sign this year on immigration will ‘‘up the likelihood’’ of Republicans pursuing that path.
Pfeiffer was dismissive about how good a case Republicans could make to come up with impeachable offenses. But he says it would be foolish to discount the possibility that Republicans would at least consider pursuing impeachment.
House Republicans also are moving to sue Obama over his use of executive authority with the Affordable Care Act.
While some Tea Party members and Republicans in the House have expressed support for impeachment, House Speaker John Boehner has said he disagrees.
Polling shows there’s little public support for impeachment. A CNN/ORC International poll released Friday found two- thirds of Americans do not support impeaching Obama, with the results divided along partisan lines.
Fifty-seven percent of Republicans, 35 percent of independents and 13 percent of Democrats support impeaching Obama, according to the telephone survey of 1,012 American adults conducted July 18 to 20.
Kind of high for the leader of their party and president, no?
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
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What the House did get done:
"House OK’s child tax credit boost" Associated Press July 26, 2014
WASHINGTON — More families with higher incomes could claim the popular child tax credit under a bill that won approval Friday in the House. But in a dispute that divides Republicans and Democrats, millions of the poorest low-income families would still lose the credit in 2018, when enhancements championed by President Obama expire.
The bill aims to make a dent in illegal immigration by prohibiting people without Social Security numbers from claiming a portion of the credit for low-income families.
With nearly all Republicans voting in favor and most Democrats opposed, the bill cleared the House by a vote of 237 to 173. The White House threatened to veto the bill, though the Democratic-controlled Senate is unlikely to pass it....
More election-year posturing and wasting of time.
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NEXT DAY UPDATES:
GOP offers its plan for child migrants
Democrats cash in on talk about impeachment
What $uckers! They are the only ones talking impeachment, and it's for $elf-$erving reasons!
