Los Angeles Times
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Christi Parsons
July 9, 2014
President
Obama faced sharp criticism for his immigration policies here Wednesday
even as the White House stepped up efforts to cope with the tens of
thousands of children
and teens from Central America who have poured into Texas’ Rio Grande
Valley.
Obama
said he was “intimately aware" of the problems on the Southwest border,
telling a news conference that his administration had assigned more
Border Patrol agents
and deployed more surveillance than ever before to stop illegal
immigration, and that it deports almost 400,000 people each year.
Pressed
to explain why he isn’t visiting Border Patrol stations or detention
facilities during his two-day visit to Texas, he said that Homeland
Security Secretary Jeh
Johnson had visited the border five times recently “at my direction”
and “then comes back to me and reports extensively everything that is
taking place.”
“So there’s nothing that is taking place down there that I am not intimately aware of and briefed on,” Obama said.
“This isn’t theater,” he added. “This is a problem. I’m not interested in photo ops. I’m interested in solving the problem.”
With
new Customs and Border Patrol figures showing that 57,000 unaccompanied
minors have been apprehended after illegally crossing the border since
October — an increase
of 5,000 since June 15 — Vice President Joe Biden called the presidents
of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to seek their assistance in
stemming the flow.
Biden
sought to “warn about dangers involved in travel to the U.S. and to
counter misinformation about U.S. immigration policy spread by criminal
smuggling organizations,”
the White House said.
He
also discussed Obama’s request to Congress for $3.7 billion, which
includes $300 million to help governments re-integrate young people
deported from the U.S. as well
as to help “address factors contributing to increases in migration.”
Making
his first trip to the state since the crisis hit the headlines this
summer, Obama was greeted on the tarmac at Dallas-Fort Worth
International Airport by Gov. Rick
Perry, who has decried the president’s immigration policies. The two
shared a 15-minute helicopter flight and a limousine ride before
attending a roundtable discussion about border issues.
In
a subsequent statement, Perry did not directly attack Obama.
“Five-hundred miles south of here in the Rio Grande Valley, there is a
humanitarian crisis unfolding that
has been created by bad public policy, in particular the failure to
secure the border,” Perry said. “Securing the border is attainable, and
the president needs to commit the resources necessary to get this done.”
Asked
by reporters to respond, Obama called on Congress to make the $3.7
billion available and to pass immigration reforms. “The bottom line is,
actually, there is nothing
the governor indicated he’d like to see that I have a philosophical
objection to,” Obama said.
Obama’s
aides portrayed his visit as part of a sales tour for his proposed
spending plan to speed up deportation proceedings, stiffen security on
the border, and care
for the young immigrants.
“This
administration at the specific direction of the president is moving
forward with a sense of urgency on multiple fronts to address the
situation on the border,” said
Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman. “We call on Congress to act
with a similar sense of urgency.”
It’s
far from clear whether Congress will approve the request, however. On
Wednesday, the president took flak for planning to visit only Dallas and
Austin, where he will
raise money for fellow Democrats and give a speech on the economy.
“How
can you have a humanitarian crisis and not want to go see it for
yourself?” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked on the Senate floor.
“Apparently
there’s no time to look at the devastation that’s being caused by his
policies,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), also in Washington.
While the politicians sparred, local leaders on the border with Mexico called for beefing up Border Patrol stations.
But Hidalgo County Judge Ramon Garcia, a Democrat, said stepped-up security alone wouldn't solve the crisis.
“We
didn’t cause it and we have no way to stop it,” he said. “This is
clearly a national issue created by these immigration policies.”
Hidalgo County and the border town of McAllen have spent $80,000 dealing with the recent influx, he said.
“We’re
trying to do the right thing, the humane thing, treating these people
with more dignity than they are being treated in some parts of
California,” he said, alluding
to angry protesters in Murrieta who blocked three busloads of
undocumented immigrants last week when Border Patrol agents tried to
transport them to a processing facility.
The
protesters said they feared the young immigrants would be released into
their community while their cases were heard in court, a process that
could take years.
Hidalgo County Constable Lazaro “Larry” Gallardo, another Democrat, said he heard similar frustrations at the local coffee shop.
“I
talked to a landowner who’s got land on the river and he’s afraid to go
over there. He took his cattle out. He can’t even enjoy his property
that he’s paying taxes
on because of this. It’s sad,” Gallardo said. “Ranchers are fed up.
They’ve got fences broken and people moving across their land, going
through houses. It’s a scary situation for some of these people.”
The
waterfront at local Anzalduas Park has become a hot spot for crossings
and photo opportunities under the palms and mesquite. Perry plans to
appear there Thursday.
“I’ve
seen all the dog and pony shows of politicians who want to go out on
gunboats and tour the river,” Gallardo said. “Nothing’s been done.”
Gallardo
said he watched Sunday as smugglers sent a group of migrants across the
Rio Grande from Mexico into the park. Then, as his deputies and Border
Patrol agents were
busy responding, more crossed into another side of the park, including a
woman on a jet ski carrying a small child.
“It just never stops,” he said. “Everyone knows what’s going on — whether they want to do anything about it is the question.”
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