Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Children flooding over southern border deemed ‘urgent,’ but Obama offers no plan

Stephen Dinan
The Washington Times
June 3, 2014

Faced with 60,000 unaccompanied children trying to cross the border illegally this year, President Obama on Monday declared it an “urgent humanitarian situation” and named a federal coordinator to make sure the children are cared for — but offered no new ideas for how to keep them from trying to enter.


These “unaccompanied alien children” are the latest hiccup for an administration that has asserted the border is secure, even as it struggles to balance enforcement with humanitarian concerns.

The White House signaled that, at least for now, it sees the flow of children — which it predicts will more than double in 2015 — as an issue to be managed rather than a problem to be fought.

“We are only talking about protecting these kids,” White House domestic policy adviser Cecilia Munoz told reporters who asked whether there were any bigger plans in the works to try to stem the flow. “These are children, and in many cases they are young children. They have just traveled from Central America to the U.S. alone.”

Full article here