As I noted yesterday, the Associated Press's Alicia Caldwell managed to ignore President Barack Obama's unilaterally imposed and recently extended "Deferred Action for Child Arrivals" (DACA) policy as the most obvious explanation for the sudden wave of "Unaccompanied Alien Children" (Homeland Security's term) illegally crossing the nation's southern border.
As weak as her report was, it had one very useful finding, namely that these young arrivals "can live in American cities, attend public schools and possibly work here for years without consequences." A "former director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office responsible for finding and removing immigrants living in the country," bluntly asserted that "They almost never go home." That factual situation directly contradicts a statement made by new White House press secretary Josh Earnest in his maiden press briefing on Friday — a statement which Caldwell, conveniently for the administration, did not report.
The UK Guardian's Dan Roberts reported the following from that briefing:
White House officials blamed human traffickers for causing the crisis. “So much of what we are seeing on the southern border is the result of a deliberate misinformation campaign that is propagated by criminal syndicates in central America,” said Obama spokesman Josh Earnest.
“That misinformation is causing some people who are in a rather desperate situation to risk their lives to come to the US border expecting that they will be able to stay in this country. That is simply not true.”
As Caldwell reported and as is obviously the case, it simply is true that "They almost never go home."
Over at Michelle Malkin's blog, Doug Powers cited a half-dozen tweets from prominent members of the Democratic Party, all of which would certainly lead those who wish to illegally send or bring children across the border to believe that those children will be be able to stay here:
In a White House tweet featuring a quote ("They are Americans in their heart, in their minds, in every single way but one: on paper") from President ObamaPresident Obama: "We are a better nation than one that deports innocent kids."
House Minority Leader and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, reacting to DACA's renewal last week: "2 yrs ago, #DACA provided a necessary relief to our nation's DREAMers."
President Obama: "Retweet if you agree that DREAMers are part of the #AmericanStory. #DACA"
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: "This immigration bill is the opportunity DREAMers have been waiting for. As C.S. Lewis said, 'You are never too old…to dream a new dream.'"
Harry Reid again: "It's time for Congress to help 11 million dreamers, young & old, get right with the law and unlock their potential."
From the Democratic Party, quoting New York Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez: "Because of Obama ... DREAMers who are American in every way except on paper no longer live under the shadow of deportation."
Perhaps Josh Earnest could locate one of these "criminal syndicates" by looking down the hall in the White House.
There is no excuse for Alicia Caldwell to have ignored what Earnest said about "criminal syndicates." The only reason she appears to have done so is to spare him some embarrassment. If that's really the reason, she should just become Earnest's administrative assistant and stop pretending to be a journalist.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
