Insecure Borders and Broken Immigration Laws: A Discussion with Chris Farrell and Mark Krikorian
by Jerry Gordon and Shane Wikfors (September 2014)
As Congress rushed for the exits in late July for the August recess, the massive humanitarian crisis on our Southern borders caused by the massive influx of more than 57,000 unaccompanied minors fleeing drug crime ridden violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. On July 25, 2014, the Presidents of these troubled Central American countries met with President Obama in the Oval Office seeking means to discourage the influx. The President discussed with these three Central American leaders an experimental in- country program that might allot up to 15,000 positions to permit entry of some of these youngsters under changes in the definitions for amnesty under the Refugee Act of 1980, via an executive order.
President Obama proposed adopting changes in those definitions to reflect the motivations behind this wave of unaccompanied minors from the three Central American Countries infiltrating mainly along the Texas Rio Grande Valley border with Mexico. They had been mistakenly informed that if they reached the US, they would be admitted. That was reminiscent of the Mariel Boat Lift that brought more than 125,000 Cuban refugees to Florida’s shores in 1980.
Additionally, the President proposed $3.7 Billion in supplemental appropriations to alleviate this humanitarian crisis. The funds were to be used to cover the cost of the detention centers, medical screening and immigration courts system for processing for deportation cases or granting possible asylum. He had granted limited amnesty in June 2012 under an Executive Memorandum, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”), for an estimated 700,000 children of illegal aliens who had been brought to the US before the age of 16. These were the so-called “dreamers” – a reference to the Dream Act that failed to pass Congress. The President’s proposals were meant to spur action by Congress before the onset of the August recess. The President threatened executive action on possible limited illegal alien amnesty if the Congress didn’t pass suitable legislation to deal with the humanitarian crisis. Both the Senate and House were at loggerheads over supplemental appropriations legislation. The Senate Appropriations Committee proposal was “Christmas treed” to cover more than $2 billion in funds for the detention holdings centers on our Southern border and the immigration courts systems with modest border security funding. It also included funds to combat wildfires in drought-ridden Western states and $225 million to replenish Israel’s Iron Dome System. On Thursday night, July 31st, the Republican minority blocked the packaged appropriations legislation by a vote of 50 to 44.
On Friday morning, August 1st, the Supplemental Appropriations of $225 million for replenishment of the Iron Dome System was passed by unanimous consent by the Senate, virtually assuring passage by the House. The only addition was funding to combat wildfires in the US West. The measure was sent on to President Obama for his signature. The Senate decamped for a five week recess, not waiting to consider border security measures pending before the House.
Before the House adjourned on August 1st for the five week recess in a mid-term election year, it passed a border security supplemental appropriations of $697 million to “speed deportations” by a vote of 223-189. Thus defying a veto threat from President Obama who called the House bill “extreme.”
report, six vulnerable Democratic Senators in the upcoming November mid-term elections, disagreed with the President’s hortatory remarks suggesting that legislative resolution of the immigration issues was the best course of action.
In the interim, the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has been forced to divert funds to tackle the unaccompanied alien minor problem on our Southern border from processing 70,000 refugees allotted by Congress under the Refugee Act provisions in the current fiscal year. A mid-August Wall Street Journal article cited a federal ORR official saying:
The WSJ article noted the concerns and lobbying efforts of mainly religious affiliated Voluntary Agencies that benefit from sole source contracts with the US State Department, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration and the US Department of Health and Human Services ORR:
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and other organizations that serve refugees have taken their concerns to congressional representatives.
The Refugee Act of 1980 was enacted to comply with international standards for handling humanitarian refugees which meant complying with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees program. The Act has resulting in over 3 million refugees being settled in the US, granting them temporary cash benefits, Medicaid eligibility and a Green Card leading to US citizenship in five years. The Refugee Act is overdue for an overhaul that a number of critics have suggested requires congressionally sponsored Government Accountability Office audits and special investigative hearings. The estimated administrative cost of the Refugee Resettlement program exceeds $2 billion annually. Add to that state welfare cash assistance and Medicaid costs and some immigration experts maintain that the annual costs could well exceed $10 to 12 billion.
In Mid-June 2014, Texas Governor, Rick Perry spoke about the crisis along the Texas border where he had ordered the National Guard to enforce security. He drew attention to the spike in Central American, Syrian and other Middle Eastern illegal immigrants seeking asylum. The Washington Times quoted Perry as saying:
The federal government must step up because Texas does not have the money or manpower to protect its 1,200 mile southern border.
Perry went on to express an abiding concern about illegal immigrants harboring possible terrorist threats:
There are a record number of illegal immigrants that are being apprehended at the border that come from countries that are home to groups that pose a threat to the United States.
These people are coming from states like Syria that have substantial connections back to terrorist regimes and terrorist operations. It is a huge problem and a great concern.
Governor Perry’s comments came in the face of a veritable onslaught of unaccompanied alien minors and women with small children from Central America swarming our borders. There were daily news stories about youngsters being warehoused, and given medical treatment. They are given bus tickets to stay with alleged relatives on the promise to show up for an Immigration court to hear their petition for asylum.
The Wall Street Journal investigated the concerns expressed by Texas Governor Perry. These were reflected in comments by Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX), “Migrant Surge Jams Border”.
Cuellar pointed to the 11,000 illegals that were effectively let go in the Rio Grande Valley and other border locations. The numbers are staggering. The DHS has stepped up deportations from 235,093 last fiscal year, up from 151,893 four years earlier.
The major concern is those unaccompanied alien minors cited by the federal ORR. The number doubled over the previous fiscal year to more than 47,017 and federal officials expect that could double to in excess of 90,000. The reality is the current surge is literally swamping the Immigration Courts system used to handle asylum and deportation matters. Currently the backlog exceeds 350,000 pending cases.
Watch this CNN news video on the crisis in unaccompanied minor illegal immigrants on the Southern border.
So who is fomenting the current humanitarian crisis on our southern border? Ann Corcoran of Refugee Resettlement Watch suggested in a recent article that may be the same religious groups that were behind the so-called Sanctuary Movement of the 1980’s in the Southwestern US that sent illegals across the country, “Invasion on the border: religious groups telling them to come!”
Corcoran cites a Border Patrol officer reflecting the comments of unaccompanied alien minors as to who told them to come here:
Cueto (Art Del Cueto, president of the National Border Patrol Council Local 2544 in Tucson) says when he asked a group of children about their motivation, they spoke of the “announcer on the radio” who encouraged them to head for the United States. Cueto says Central American radio, television, other media, and religious groups have all encouraged people to move north to the United States.
Against this background, the Lisa Benson Radio Show held a panel discussion on “Broken Borders, Broken Immigration Laws” co-hosted by Arizona veteran radio personality and political activist, Shane Wikfors and this writer. The panel was composed of Christopher Farrell, Director of Investigations and Board member of Judicial Watch and Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies , both based in Washington, DC.
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Shane Wikfors: Good afternoon America. Hello and welcome to the Lisa Benson Radio Show for national security matters. Week after week this broadcast brings you the accurate, measured and intelligent information on protecting the American homeland and its closest ally Israel. My name is Shane Wikfors and today I will be sitting in for Lisa Benson
Acting as co-host in Lisa Benson’s absence is Jerry Gordon. Jerry Gordon is the Senior Vice President of World Encounter Institute. He is also Senior Editor for New English Review. He is a former Army Intelligence Officer who served during the Vietnam era. He has been published widely in many different outlets including FrontPage Magazine, American Thinker, WorldNet Daily, and of course New English Review. He is also a frequent guest on a number of radio shows across the country and a co-host on this weekly show.
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Jerry Gordon: Thank you very much.
Wikfors: We have quite a great line up today. Would you please introduce our first guest?
Gordon: Mr. Christopher Farrell is a long term member of the staff and board of Judicial Watch in Washington D.C. He is a Distinguished Military Graduate from Fordham University with a Bachelor in History after which he accepted a regular Army commission and served as a Military Intelligence Officer specializing in counter-terror intelligence and human intelligence. Chris is Director of Investigations at Judicial Watch. He has appeared frequently on cable news TV programs, FOX news channel and others. He has been an eyewitness to the breakdown on our Southern border as well as other activities of importance for this country.
Farrell: Wikfors: Great to have you.
Gordon: Chris, connected with the dramatic revelations about the Fast and Furious investigation, we noticed that there has been an extradition of one of the Mexican drug gang members who allegedly is a suspect in the 2010 killing of US Border Patrol man, Brian Terry. What can you tell us about that?
Wikfors: What kind of process in terms of time frame do you think it will take before those documents are released and do you think the slowness of that pace will indicate something?
Farrell: I mean if the government strategy is a delay tactics then they are going to do everything they possibly can to drag their feet. We waited very patiently sixteen months while supposedly the House Oversight Committee and the Justice Department went around and around about these Fast Furious records and documents. Your listeners should be reminded that these documents are being withheld on an assertion of executive privilege. That means is the White House is asserting that the President, and the Attorney General, personally were involved in the decision making concerning this gun running operation, Fast and Furious. By making that assertion in court papers, they are figuratively speaking, dragging the body bags of Fast and Furious into the Oval Office. No one should mistake that for a moment. No one died in Watergate. In this case they have at least three hundred dead Mexicans, a dead border patrol agent and arguably another dead deputy sheriff all tied to Fast and Furious guns. The President and the Attorney General say they personally made the decision in the Oval Office. That is breathtaking, shattering, shocking information but for the most part the American people are asleep at the switch.
Wikfors: I think most people in this country are almost in a state of crisis, worn out by the scandals that have occurred. So it continues to drag people into these different scenarios with it or the situations with the Administration.
Gordon: You have been onsite at our Southern border. Late Friday night the House passed its version of a secure border bill. From your work down there how secure is the Southern border and how can we prevent things like drug trading, human trafficking and even infiltration by some international terrorist groups?
Wikfers: I have a son who served in the National Guard. He was stationed on the border just East of Douglas, Arizona for a number of months and when I believe the Obama administration pulled funding from the State of Arizona. Could there be a possible problem if we have a Commander in Chief who is not willing to militarize the border. How do you see that playing out?
Wikfors: Conceivably this can even drag out until say January of 2017?
Farrell: Easily.
Wikfors: In my opinion it is a manufactured crisis. We are in for a long number of months until the next opportunity to replace leadership and the Commander in Chief.
Farrell: Correct.
Gordon: Mark Krikorian is our next guest. He is a recognized national and international expert on immigration. He serves as Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington D.C. which conducts non-partisan research, examines and critiques the impact of immigration on the United States. He has frequently testified before Congress. You may have seen him on National Cable TV news programs. He is published widely in the Washington Post, the New York Times, L.A. Times and Commentary, welcome Mark.
Krikorian: Glad to be here.
Gordon: In our last segment with Chris Farrell we talked about the insecurity of the border and its possible militarization. Regarding this current dramatic influx of Central American unaccompanied minors, what do you attribute that to?
Gordon: Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has flip flopped all over the place trying to deal with the immigration problem. What do you suspect is his dilemma and why is he doing this?
Gordon: Mark, what do the polls of American on immigration reform show us? Do they reflect these discussions that we have had during this program?
Krikorian: Happy to do it. Thank you.
Gordon: Thanks again Shane.
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