Immigration Crises: Texas and California

Be careful what you say… those words come back and haunt you. Unfortunately, that’s the plight of President Obama.  In 2005, he criticized then President George W. Bush for not going in person to assess the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina but instead, to simply fly over the region. (He also had a few unkind words for FEMA.)

Fast forward to July 2014. Faced with a potentially awkward scene at the Texas-Mexico border, the President is trying to alter the political debate over the tsunami of mostly young illegal aliens flooding across the border as a question of the GOP’s willingness to tackle the problem…

… not his decision to skip a chance to view the crisis first-hand.

The Prez arrived in Texas under pressure from Republicans (like Texas Governor Rick Perry), as well as from his own party to add a trip to the border to his two-day fundraising swing. Read that again s-l-o-w-l-y: He’s in Texas to fund-raise NOT to personally visit the scene of what is shaping up to be one of the worst immigration crises in American history. And why won’t President Obama visit the border?

What’s being said: The White House steadfastly refused calls for the President to personally inspect the situation, insisting there was little Obama could learn from a border visit that he didn't already know.

What’s really at play: Wherever the President goes, the media follows. Imagine vivid scenes of children unaccompanied by their parents; many ill with diseases we’ve long controlled in the U.S.; most with lice; and, malnutrition and dehydration rampant. It wouldn’t take long for the average American viewer (even the “Progressives”) to figure out the $4 BILLION Obama has asked Congress for to aid all these illegal aliens ARE THEIR TAX DOLLARS.  

This, by no means, should denigrate the fact that we have a human catastrophe on our collective hands and aid in whatever form needs to be administered swiftly and in large doses.

In the Golden State, Murrieta Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore), wants Governor Brown to get more involved with the immigration crisis that has gripped the region since protesters turned back busses of illegal immigrants. (Murrieta is a city in southwestern Riverside County.)

Prompted by busloads of immigrants passing through the town en route to registration and shelter at facilities controlled by the U.S. Border Patrol (which raises the question, since when did Riverside County become our border? But I digress.), protestors have displayed ever-increasing resentment on both sides of the issue. Demonstrators on one side have sought to turn back the buses and condemned the flaunting of our immigration laws. On the other side are protesters emphasizing the ”humanity of youths fleeing violence and poverty.”

Melendez, who represents Murrieta in Sacramento, has urged Gov. Jerry Brown (who has not publicly outlined a plan for dealing with the illegal immigrants nor visited Murrieta) to come to the district as well as outline a broader plan to aid in a situation where the U.S. Border Patrol has already stated that the buses will continue pass through Murrieta every 72 hours.