Out-of-sight, out-of mind

The Obama Administration is having trouble hiding the illegal immigrants who arrived in the most recent influx. According to the Washington Times, the Pentagon had initially agreed to take on 3600 of them for 120 days, but I guess they’re adjusting those numbers upwards.

The number of children seeking shelter at the three of the Pentagon’s military facilities is in flux, but close enough to the limit of an interagency agreement Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel signed onto that the Defense Department has to start making plans for exceeding that cap, according to Pentagon spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren.

The other day we talked about the possible use of Fort Drum to house the little fellas, but according to Syracuse.com, that wasn’t suitable;

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and General Services Administration will send a team to Syracuse this week to assess the feasibility of housing the children at the 10-acre Franciscan campus at Court Street and Grant Boulevard.

[…]

The Syracuse site was selected for an initial assessment after federal officials conducted a similar study at Fort Drum, near Watertown.

The sources said the sprawling military base at Fort Drum and several other Upstate New York sites have been ruled out as unsatisfactory for the housing needs.

The only thing I can think of that would make Fort Drum unacceptable would be if they planned on putting the little dears in the old World War II wooden barracks. Everything else is brand new (relatively). And 120 days takes the whole experience into November – not a good time to be in Upstate New York if you’re from a Central American shit hole.

But, I’m guessing that this administration wants to get these folks out of sight until after the midterm elections so the attention-deficit voters to forget those images of protests along the border.

The UN is pushing the Obama Administration to designate the little fellas as “refugees” who are fleeing armed conflict instead of just illegal aliens in order to give them all due process rights;

Many of the migrants, in fact, stay for years as their cases wend through overloaded migration courts. Those who say they are fleeing criminal violence generally are not eligible for political asylum, which is reserved for groups persecuted for their beliefs or identities. U.N. officials say there is no way of forcing the U.S. and Mexico to accept Central Americans as refugees, but a broad-based change in terminology could bring pressure on the two countries to do more.

“Unaccompanied children and families who fear for their lives and freedoms must not be forcibly returned without access to proper asylum procedures,” UNHCR official Leslie Velez said in testimony submitted to the House Judiciary Committee late last month.

Ya know what I remember? When we were demonized for deporting parents while their kids stayed here. I guess deporting kids to go back to be with their parents somehow makes us demons, too.

Category: Illegal Immigrants