Seemingly taking a page from Hillary Clinton's playbook, President Obama said in an interview today on Good Morning America that parents in Central America who may be considering sending their children north to attempt to cross the border into the U.S. should not do so as their children will be sent back.
Our message absolutely is "don't sent your children, unaccompanied, on trains or through a bunch of smugglers." That is our direct message to the families in Central America. Do not send your children to the borders. If they do make it, they'll get sent back; more importantly, they may not make it."
Border officials expect upwards of 90,000 unaccompanied minors will attempt to cross the border in 2014. That is an astronomical increase of the just over 5,000 unaccompanied minors apprehended at the border in 2004. Unaccompanied minors are being kept in cages in overwhelmed, overcrowded shelters, which politicians on both sides of the aisle have declared a humanitarian crisis.
Earlier this month, Clinton did not try to hide her disapproval of Obama's handling of this immigration crisis.
Moments later, Clinton articulated a bottom-line policy that disagrees sharply with President Obama's observable priorities.
'We have to send a clear message: Just because your child gets across the border, that doesn't mean the child gets to stay,' Clinton said.
There's no denying the tragedy and absurdity of the situation at the U.S.'s southern border. The president's rhetoric regarding promises of "amnesty" and "DREAMers" has only encouraged families to risk the lives of their children in an attempt to cross the border. It is about time Obama has stopped with these mixed messages.