Border Crisis: Blame Mexico and Obama

They are smuggled by the thousands across the United States' southern border with Mexico.  They arrive malnourished with not much more than the clothes on their backs.  Most are from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.  They are fleeing violence, poverty and drug gangs in their home countries.

Their plight has aroused national sympathy.  Americans are horrified by the pictures and reports of children huddled in crowded facilities in the U.S.  Churches, aid organizations and ordinary Americans have pitched in to help ease the humanitarian crisis created by the influx of unaccompanied children.

But even for a nation with a big heart, the situation has ignited a growing backlash against what many Americans view as a failure of the Obama Administration's effort to secure the border.  A Washington Post/ABC News poll found 58% disapproved of the president's handling of the catastrophe.

Only 28% of those surveyed supported the president's response, one of the lowest ratings on any issues since Obama assumed the nation's highest office.  Americans clearly understand that Obama's laissez- faire policies on illegal border crossing have exacerbated the current dilemma.

The president issued a policy directive in 2012 known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which allowed some illegal immigrant children to defer deportation.  Earlier this month, the administration extended the program, empowering illegal aliens to apply for a two-year extension.

Those executive actions created an incentive for Central American parents to ship their children across the U.S. border.  If you doubt this, consider Texas Republican Representative Kay Granger's assessment after she recently visited Central America.

"There is no doubt the message went out: Go across the border, the United States won't do anything about it," she told reporters after meetings with officials and parents in Central America.

Given the green light by Obama, desperate parents dispatched thousands of children into harm's way to seek asylum in the United States by way of Mexico.  The Mexican government for its part turned a blind eye to the torrent of youngsters slipping through the country's porous 600-mile border with Guatemala.

These children clambered aboard the tops of railroad cars for the treacherous trek across Mexico.  No Mexican official stopped them. Many of the children were robbed, raped and some were sold into slavery.  The Mexican police looked the other way.  This would never happen in a civilized country.

Then once the children reached the border, Mexican smugglers operating with impunity demanded thousands of dollars to sneak the bedraggled youngsters into America.  The routes are well known to Mexican officials, but no one stepped in to prevent the human trafficking.

Now it is the United States' problem.  Like Pontius Pilate, Mexico washed its hands of the humanitarian disaster it could have prevented.  For his part, President Obama has done little more that offer to throw $3.7 billion in taxpayer money at a problem he helped create.

Under the president's proposal, most of the dollars would be earmarked for emergency housing, more immigration judges, defense lawyers and overtime pay for border patrol workers.  It is obvious Obama is focused on resettlement of the illegals rather than on deportation.  

Even after Texas Governor Rick Perry offered to usher the president to the Texas border for a firsthand view of the crisis, Obama ducked the invitation and instead attended fundraisers in Austin.  It was his way of raising a one-fingered salute at southern states forced to cope with the issue.

No one, especially Obama, can claim there was no advance warning. This crisis has been brewing for months.  According to Customs and Border Protection, more than 52,000 unaccompanied alien children have been apprehended from October of last year through June 15.

There should be little doubt why the president has dithered.  Now that the waves of illegals have reached epic proportions, he will use this imbroglio to further his agenda of extending amnesty to every illegal foreigner in the country.   He will prey on Americans' good-hearted nature toward abandoned children to achieve his goal.

Americans must resist this politically calculated appeal.  The U.S. opens wide its arms to welcome legal immigrants from ever nation, but America must send the signal that it is no longer acceptable for people to ignore our sovereign borders.