Immigration Reform News 2014: Obama Administration Cracks Down on Women, Children Illegally Crossing US Borders
On Friday, the Obama administration announced steps to crack down on the surge of women and children from Central America illegally crossing U.S. borders.
To turn unauthorized migrants away, President Barack Obama revealed a number of steps to detain more and accelerate their court cases to deport them more quickly.
The administration will add more immigration judges to process a backlog of asylum claims and quickly deport adults whose cases are rejected. And the Department of Homeland Security is rushing to open new detention facilities for families awaiting hearings, while ankle monitors will track migrants after they are released, officials said, according to The Washington Post.
Obama also proposed a series of grants to help officials in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, the countries most of the unaccompanied children are coming from, receive and house deported immigrants.
To prevent migrants from fleeing their home countries, the U.S. government will create a $40 million program run by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to improve citizen security in Guatemala. Likewise, the USAID will create a $25 million program to curb violence in El Salvador, and Obama will grant $18.5 million to Honduras to help community policing and gang-prevention programs.
In addition, Vice President Joe Biden went to Guatemala on Friday to meet with leaders from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to stop misinformation about administration policies and to convey the message that undocumented immigrants will be deported, The New York Times reported.
The response is due to a sharp rise in the number of children crossing the border without their parents. In 2011, fewer than 4,000 unaccompanied children from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were caught along the border, compared to over 34,000 in 2014.
Republicans in Washington blame Obama's policies for serving as a global invitation to immigrants.
"The policies of your administration have directly resulted in the belief by these immigrants that once they reach U.S. soil, they will be able to stay here indefinitely," House Speaker John Boehner said in a letter Friday, according to USA Today.
Immigrant rights advocates said Obama is taking a tougher stance on undocumented immigration in response to Republican pressure.
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