Obama Retreating from Policies to Send Illegals Back Home

Just ahead of President Obama’s plea for $2 billion in new spending to address the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens streaming across our border, it is now reported that Obama is retreating from pushing policies that would send illegals back home. Instead, he wants more money for “judges” to address a mounting caseload and “legal aid” services for the illegal immigrants.

The Associated Press is reporting that the retreat comes in response to criticism that the policies as originally announced were “too harsh.”

White House spokesmen had claimed that Obama intended to seek “additional authority” for the Homeland Security secretary to deport illegals with quicker dispatch.

But now, when Obama asks Congress for $2 billion in new spending, “the request will not be accompanied by the policy changes that the White House had indicated it planned to seek,” the AP says.

Instead, “for now the White House request will focus on additional money for immigration judges, detention facilities, legal aid and other items that could address the situation on the border, which the administration has termed a humanitarian crisis.”

All this because illegal immigration supporters were afraid that the “additional authority” would eliminate a hearing before an immigration judge that tens of thousands of children swarming across the border would otherwise be afforded.

“It would take away their right to council, right to proper screening. … It would undermine completely due process,” Leslie Holman, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the AP.

The administration is promising to continue to monitor the mounting crisis on the border as the President engages in another campaign fundraising tour this week, this one through Texas.

But even as the crisis grows every hour, Obama has not scheduled any time to visit the border during his fundraising trip to Texas, a move the White House says it is “not worried” about.

Finally, a leaked report from the Department of Homeland Security admits that not deporting illegal immigrants is a significant factor in the flood of illegals we are experiencing.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.