New York Times
By Jackie Calmes and Ashley Parker
July 9, 2014
DALLAS
— President Obama on Wednesday directly challenged Gov. Rick Perry of
Texas to rally Republicans in support of a $3.7 billion emergency
measure aimed at solving
the humanitarian crisis caused as thousands of Central American
children have crossed the Mexican border.
The
president described a frank exchange with Mr. Perry, who has been one
of his most vocal critics, after their private meeting aboard the
presidential helicopter and
then at Dallas Love Field.
The
meeting was hastily negotiated as the border crisis came to shadow Mr.
Obama’s previously planned trip to Texas and Colorado to raise campaign
money and talk about
an improving economy.
The
president said the emergency aid would address Republicans’ calls for
increased border security while also providing care for the thousands of
unaccompanied children
who have been detained in the Rio Grande Valley. Mr. Obama suggested
that election-year political maneuvering was blocking the package
because Republicans see the crisis as a way to damage him and his party.
“The
problem here is not major disagreement around the actions that could be
helpful,” Mr. Obama said he told Mr. Perry. “The challenge is, is
Congress prepared to act
to put the resources in place to get this done?”
“Another
way of putting it — and I said this directly to the governor — is, are
folks more interested in politics, or are they more interested in
solving the problem?”
Mr. Obama said.
Mr.
Perry, in a statement after his meeting with the president, reiterated
that the crisis was the result of “bad public policy,” though he did not
specify — as he has
in the past — that Mr. Obama’s policies were to blame. He also again
asked Mr. Obama to visit the border, about 500 miles south of Dallas, a
call that Mr. Obama rejected on Wednesday.
“This isn’t theater; this is a problem,” he said. “I’m not interested in photo-ops. I’m interested in solving a problem.”
Mr.
Obama promised to “do the right thing by these children.” But he also
urged parents in Central America to stop sending their children into the
United States, a trip
he called especially dangerous.
“It
is unlikely that their children will be able to stay,” Mr. Obama said.
More than 52,000 children have flooded into the United States in the
last eight months.
Mr.
Obama’s arrival in Texas, the state with the longest border with
Mexico, focused attention on the emerging spike in migration from
Central America as well as the political
stalemate between the president and his Republican adversaries on a
broader immigration overhaul.
The president and Mr. Perry met before a round-table discussion on the border issue with local officials and religious leaders.
The
governor, who had initially refused to stand for an Air Force One photo
opportunity with the president, ultimately did greet Mr. Obama on the
tarmac at Dallas/Fort
Worth International Airport. The pair shook hands amiably if not
warmly, and they chatted as they walked to the Marine One helicopter for
a brief ride to the Love Field site of the round-table discussion, with
Mr. Obama at one point putting his hand on the
governor’s back.
Mr.
Obama said his Homeland Security secretary, Jeh Johnson, would soon
make his sixth trip to the border to coordinate the federal response
with that of the Perry administration.
Jim Cole, the deputy attorney general, was in the border town of
McAllen, Tex., on Wednesday to tour the Customs and Border Protection
facility there and to discuss shifting resources to the region.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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