Immigration News: Obama Pledges Immigration Fix as California Protests Continue
Protesters were out again in force in California on Friday, voicing their opinion on an illegal immigration crisis that appears to be getting worse.
The immigrant situation, along with the protests, have prompted President Barack Obama to vow to find a solution to the problem, saying he may consider executive orders, according to the Wall Street Journal.
At a naturalization ceremony on Friday at the White House, Obama said he would work to make the immigration system "smarter."
Those words likely won't appease the hundreds of protesters in Murrieta, California, who have been demonstrating against undocumented immigration on and off since Tuesday, when the group blocked three buses carrying 140 illegal immigrants that were sent from Texas. The buses had to be rerouted to an undisclosed location in San Diego, according to USA Today.
On Friday, immigration supporters showed up to the Border Patrol station in Murrieta to counter the protesters, USA Today said. The supporters outnumbered the protesters 2-to-1. Shouting matches ensued, and in the end six people were arrested.
The immigration debate again has jumped to the front of the U.S. consciousness because of a drastic increase over the last several months. Since October, more than 91,000 people have crossed the U.S. border with Mexico, according to the Wall Street Journal. Of those who have crossed from Central America, 52,000 are children.
The U.S. Border Patrol in that time has detained more than 39,000 people traveling as families.
The children coming into the country present a problem for authorities because U.S. law requires that children from countries that aren't contiguous with the U.S. must stay in the country until their deportation cases are heard.
This week, Obama has said that he has been considering executive actions to deal with the problem but has not offered anything concrete, the Wall Street Journal reported. He said on Friday that the U.S. "needs to fix our broken system."
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