Obama’s immigration scandals: surge of illegals crossing border, deportable criminals released onto U.S. streets

Amidst all the other scandals confronting the Obama administration, from concealed VA waiting lists to the release of five Taliban leaders from Guantanamo in exchange for one U.S. deserter, without the legally required notice to Congress, there are also two immigration scandals for which the administration is clearly responsible.

One scandal involves the surge of illegal migrants entering the U.S. without permission across the southern border. That border is so poorly defended that unprecedented numbers of minor children are being apprehended after illegally entering the U.S.

Since October 1, 2013, according to the NY Times, a record 47,017 unaccompanied children have been apprehended at the southwest border, a 90% increase over the previous fiscal year, with at least 60,000 total expected by the end of the current fiscal year on September 30.

According to the Times, “Many say they are coming because they believe that the United States treats migrant children traveling alone and women with their children more leniently than adult illegal immigrants with no children.” The Times confirms based on interviews with immigration officials and lawyers that there has in fact been a shift in U.S. policy.

“If you make it, they take you to a shelter and take care of you and let you have permission to stay,” one migrant reported. “When you appeal your case, if you say you want to study, they support you.”

The Obama administration in 2012 deported one-fifth the number of Central American children as were expelled in 2008, according to the Times. And, “as the number of deportees flown by air to El Salvador from the United States started to drop, the number of people returned by land from Mexico started to rise.”

The Obama administration has publicized its policies of prosecutorial discretion aiming to limit deportations to illegal aliens who have been convicted of serious crimes, its executive order for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) granting immigration relief to illegal entrants under 16, and its support for a general immigration amnesty passed by the U.S. Senate.

So it’s understandable why illegal immigrants are left with the sense that the United States has “opened its doors” to women and children in particular, according to the Times. “As more of those children were released from federal shelter, and the numbers placed with (illegal immigrant) parents or foster care soared, other parents noticed. Those parents were encouraged by the opportunities children were given.”

The other immigration scandal, as reported by CBS News and the Washington Times, is the disclosure that despite its stated policy of prioritizing the deportation of aliens with criminal convictions, the Obama administration has in fact released onto U.S. streets 36,007 deportable aliens with criminal convictions in 2013. Those aliens, with no right to remain in the U.S., included 193 homicide convictions, 426 sexual assault convictions, 303 kidnapping convictions, 1,075 aggravated assault convictions, and 1,160 stolen vehicle convictions.

The administration claims that some of the releases were required because the home countries of criminal aliens refuse to accept their own criminal citizens back. But the Obama administration refuses to apply diplomatic pressure on those countries by stopping the issuance of U.S. visas to their citizens, as previous administrations have done with success. And at least 25% of the convicted murderers who are deportable aliens, appear to have been released by the Obama administration on its own initiative.