Jeh Johnson's empty pledge to keep unaccompanied children from coming here illegally

Department of Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson is engaged in the policy equivalent of doublespeak: he claims he wants unaccompanied children not to enter the U.S. illegally, but at the same time his other policies encourage a mad rush for the border.

What you can do about this is detailed after this excerpt from "U.S. Setting Up Emergency Shelter in Texas as Youths Cross Border Alone" ( peekURL.com/zqSZJce ) by Julia Preston:

With border authorities in South Texas overwhelmed by a surge of young illegal migrants traveling by themselves, the Department of Homeland Security declared a crisis this week and moved to set up an emergency shelter for the youths at an Air Force base in San Antonio, officials said Friday.

After seeing children packed in a Border Patrol station in McAllen, Tex., during a visit last Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Monday declared “a level-four condition of readiness” in the Rio Grande Valley. The alert was an official recognition that federal agencies overseeing borders, immigration enforcement and child welfare had been outstripped by a sudden increase in unaccompanied minors in recent weeks...

Mr. Johnson said he had spoken on Monday with the ambassadors from Mexico and the three Central American countries to seek their cooperation, and had begun a publicity campaign to dissuade youths from embarking for the United States.

“We have to discourage parents from sending or sending for their children to cross the Southwest border because of the risks involved,” Mr. Johnson said. “A South Texas processing center is no place for a child.”

Like all other DHS secretaries before him, Johnson is a strong supporter of comprehensive immigration reform and he doesn't do anywhere near as much immigration enforcement as he could [1]. Combine that with other benefits illegal aliens receive - such as discounted college educations in Texas and other states - and there isn't a lot of downside for parents to call for or send their kids to the U.S. If a kid makes it across the border - sometimes a big if - they'll find a very welcoming support network consisting of Rick Perry and other corrupt politicians, hundreds of far-left NGOs, the establishment media (including Preston), and more.

Jeh Johnson and Barack Obama are part of that support network: neither would have much use for immigration enforcement if they could get away with it. On the one hand Johnson claims he wants to keep kids from coming here alone, but on the other he might as well be waving people across. Johnson is engaging in a form of false compassion.

Want to do something about this? Tweet your thoughts to any DHS representatives you can find. Ask them questions like, "If parents knew illegal aliens would never be legalized, would fewer kids try to come here illegally?" Or: "if people knew the U.S. declares amnesty every decade, would more people try to come here illegally?" There's an excellent chance those DHS representatives won't reply, so you look up who they talk to and point out to those people that the representative can't answer your questions.

5/30/14 UPDATE: The paragraph above referred to "DHS spokesman @CStevensDHS". However, he's since left or gotten fired. This post will be updated with a list of DHS spokespeople you can contact.

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[1] The stock response is to claim that Obama has deported more people that George W Bush or similar. That claim isn't true. Obama is as bad or worse on deportations as GWB was. His statistics for criminally prosecuting employers of illegal aliens is probably as low or lower than Bush's.