Blame is apparently an effective tool in the President Barack Obama-created atmosphere of immigration.
No doubt you've heard about the thousands of children streaming across the nation's southern border.
The Christian Science Monitor reported last week the number of unaccompanied minors entering from the south totaled 6,560 in fiscal 2011. That's a staggering number unto itself. What's the projected number for 2014? It's 90,000.
Do you think people south of the border might have gotten word that the United States, under the leadership of President Obama, is a pushover when it comes to protecting the borders and enforcing immigration laws?
Folks, I encourage the leadership of our country to adopt whatever workable solution there is for illegal immigration and the millions of people who are in this nation illegally. Debate it. Argue about it. Then adopt whatever laws that democratic process churns out. But don't create a magnet for illegal immigration by ignoring the need for enforcing the laws on the books right now.
The children are mostly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, countries rife with violence and poverty.
The Washington Post reported Friday the young people crossing the Mexican border are motivated in part by the belief the Obama administration will allow them to stay in the United States. I'd bet they're right.
And, of course, the folks who suggest the nation's borders and policies should not be so porous are criticized as unfeeling and mean-spirited.
U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, a Democrat who isn't exactly considered a critic of the president in most scenarios, reported last week that her staff had spoken to many children who were smuggled across the border after hearing radio ads promising they would not be deported from the United States.
Some of those perceptions are fueled by the president's unilateral decision to create a moratorium on deportation proceedings for children of parents who came to the United States illegally prior to 2007. Sure, that doesn't apply to the kids flowing across the border now, but the folks south of the border know the president's real desire. They're counting on Obama to maintain his wishy-washiness on U.S. immigration enforcement enough that they'll also get a pass.
There is no question some of these young people are born into horrible circumstances, but that's not the criteria our nation uses in dictating immigration policy. If that were so, we would need to open the borders to millions from all nations who don't have it as good as they could have it living in this country. One of the reasons adults can somehow manage to find solutions to troubles in their own countries is a drive to make them better for future generations. Shipping those generations to the United States is not the solution.
Now, amazingly, our federal government has opened an investigation into abuse of these kids. Against whom? The very border patrol agents hired to enforce the laws of our country. So, rather than doing their jobs, border patrol agents are having to defend themselves against their own government even as they try to deal with an unprecendent influx of people illegally crossing the nation's boarders.
And the agency has now warned those border patrol officer if they talk to journalists trying to cover the flow of young people across the border, they may be charged with committing a crime. This comes from the Obama presidency, the one that was going to be the most transparent in history.
Meanwhile, advocates for those entering the country illegally are complaining about conditions in camps where these women and children are being held, as though the United States should have prepared to receive them in a more appropriate fashion.
I don't blame any of these folks for wanting to come to this great country. But it's hard to believe this topsy-turvy world allows for the portrayal of the United States and its border patrol agents as the bad guys, and the Obama administration seems just fine allowing that perception to exist.
Unless the United States is ready to take all comers, the nation needs a clear and firm immigration policy that isn't dismissed by executive order of the president.
GREG HARTON IS OPINION PAGE EDITOR FOR NWA MEDIA.
Commentary on 06/16/2014