The Blame Barack Obama Caucus

Floor Speech

Mr. JEFFRIES. Madam Speaker, we have a humanitarian crisis at our border that challenges the capacity of the United States of America to address it from both a resource perspective and from a compassionate perspective.

Tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors are seeking entry into this country, children who are fleeing extreme violence in the northern triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

Now, there are some in this institution who want to lay blame for this crisis at the feet of the Obama administration. This is not a surprising development because these individuals are members of the BBO caucus, the blame Barack Obama caucus.

Whenever anything happens in this country or in this world, they want to blame the President of the United States. Something goes wrong in Iraq, a war that was prosecuted, that was botched, that was mismanaged by the previous administration, the BBO caucus blames Barack Obama.

So we are seeing a similar phenomenon as it relates to this humanitarian crisis. First, they claim it was brought about by the President's decision related to deferred action connected to individuals falling into the DREAMer category.

But they failed to note that in order to be eligible for deferred action, you have to be in this country continuously since 2007. That claim has no basis in reality.

Then they say, well, the President refuses to enforce our Nation's immigration laws. How silly is that argument? Hundreds of thousands of individuals have been deported by the Obama administration each and every year in record numbers, particularly when compared to the previous Republican President. The unenforcement argument has no basis in reality.

Then, lastly, they say, well, this has to do with comprehensive immigration reform. Comprehensive immigration reform is not the law of the land. The bill was passed by the Senate. It hasn't even been acted upon by the House, let alone sent to the President for his signature. And even if a pathway toward citizenship were created, if you look at the legislation, only individuals in this country since December of 2011 would be eligible.

Yet the blame Barack Obama caucus doesn't care about the facts. Well, here are the facts. The individuals, the children who are fleeing and who are coming to this country, are trying to escape extreme violence, gang activity, drug trafficking, sexual abuse, and intimidation. The Northern Triangle countries of Central America--El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras--are among the most violent in the world. Honduras is the murder capital of the world--number one. El Salvador is number four, and Guatemala is number five.

How do we know that this phenomenon is not simply Uncle Sam throwing his hands up saying come into our country? Well, here is another reason. All of the Central American neighbors to our south outside of these Northern Triangle countries have also experienced an exponential increase in unaccompanied minors. Mexico, Belize, Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua have all experienced significant increases in children coming to those countries, more than a 400 percent increase collectively in asylum applications in 2012.

This is not a pull from the United States. These children are running for their lives. And so we have got to address it with an understanding of what is the root cause of the humanitarian crisis.

Several of us on the Judiciary Committee have introduced the Vulnerable Immigrant Voice Act because we believe that the unaccompanied children should have access to counsel. It would benefit the taxpayer in making immigration proceedings more efficient and ensuring expedited removal when merited and in making sure that unnecessary detention doesn't take place.

Now, many of these children will not have a valid legal basis to remain, but some will. Some will have asylum claims, U visa, or Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, and for that reason we should give them access to counsel and do what is right for these children.

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