My must read of the day is "Immigrant Surge Rooted in Law to Curb Child Trafficking," in the New York Times:
"This is a piece of legislation we’re very proud to sign," a White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, told reporters on Dec. 23, 2008, as the president put his pen to the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, named for a 19th-century British abolitionist. "This program has been very effective around the world in trying to stop trafficking in persons."
Now the legislation, enacted quietly during the transition to the Obama administration, is at the root of the potentially calamitous flow of unaccompanied minors to the nation’s southern border. […]
The Obama administration says the law is partly responsible for tying its hands in dealing with the current influx of children. Officials have suggested that the White House might seek flexibility in the law’s requirements when it asks Congress to provide emergency funds to contend with the latest immigration crisis, a request that could come as early as Tuesday. About 52,000 minors without their parents have been caught at the Southwest border since October. […]
Republicans, who are calling for changes that would make it easier to send them back, blame President Obama for the surge of children at the border, saying he provided a lure by instituting a program that deferred deportations for some immigrants who entered the nation illegally as children.
They say the effort to point to the Bush-era law is a meant to deflect attention from the administration and make both parties culpable.
The problem at the border is a complex one and there are numerous factors at play. Surely the violence and poverty in these countries, while it is not new, has played a role. The 2008 law also causes some issues in dealing with it now—a point some Republicans have agreed with. The administration and its supporters refuse to accept any responsibility in the crisis, and any explanation that places the blame on their actions and policies is continuously dismissed or glossed over as "those people are mistaken."
These communities have extensive anecdotal evidence that they can send their children to America and they will be able to stay. Deportation numbers show they're not entirely wrong.
The Los Angeles Times reports that deportations of minors have drastically declined under the Obama administration. In 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 8,143 immigrants under the age of 18. In 2012, only 1,669 were deported.
From 2003 to 2011, fewer than 6,775 undocumented minors came into the country. By 2012 it was 13,625. By 2013, 24,668, and now it’s 60,000.
The 2008 law did not cause all of this.
To not concede that the administration has played a key role in creating an environment that encourages this behavior is willful ignorance and blind partisanship. It dooms us for failure, because overlooking the most glaring piece of evidence cannot solve a problem.