Central American Migrant Wave Threatens Democrats In 2016

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For some Democrats, the actual enforcement of popular and constitutional immigration law is subordinate to their 2016 election calculations, according to TheHill.com.

The Obama administration’s plan to deport hundreds of [migrant] families could scramble the politics of immigration heading into the 2016 election.

Democrats are feeling bullish about their prospects with Hispanic voters given the tough rhetoric coming from GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump and other Republican candidates.

President Obama won nearly 70 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2012, and Democrats believe Hillary Clinton could improve on that number if Republicans continue their hostile rhetoric over illegal immigration.

As a result, the Department of Homeland Security’s planned campaign to aggressively deport hundreds of immigrant families fleeing violence in Central America is causing concern on the left — for reasons of both politics and policy.

“As of this moment, the distinction between Democrats and Republicans has never been clearer,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of the immigrant-rights group America’s Voice. “That distinction could clearly be blurred if they start raiding young mothers who have fled violence.”

But Obama’s wave of migrants has already caused problems for the Democrats — a 2014 upsurge put the final nail into their 2014 effort to revive the so-called 2013 “comprehensive immigration reform,” and helped Republicans win the Senate. Many voters, including Democratic voters and Hispanic voters, worry about migrants crowding into their neighborhoods, workplaces and kids’ schools, and onto welfare rolls, and they prefer those migrants be repatriated once their legal pleas are rejected.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D), who represents a south Texas district that sits along the U.S.-Mexico border [says] there are upsides to the [repatriation] plan.

“In my district, people say that if they have their day in court, then the law should be followed and ICE should do what they need to do,” said Cuellar, who has endorsed Clinton’s presidential campaign.

“People that live near the border see things differently than the national immigration advocates, and I know that for a fact.”

The congressman said the plan “might cause difficulty for people like Hillary Clinton, but I hope at they end of the day they follow what the law is.”

The entire political problem is self-inflicted, because Obama and his deputies have exploited loopholes in the complex immigration law to effectively invite the wave of Central American migrants, now exceeding 250,000, since 2009. If not reversed, the Democrats’ migrants wave will impose a huge multi-billion dollar financial burden on American taxpayers over the next several decades.

Obama’s officials know that if they don’t do something, the Central American inflow will likely increase during 2016, further strengthening public opposition to the nation’s out-of-control autopilot immigration policies that are bringing millions of new Democratic voters into the nation.

The Obama administration reportedly feels it has little choice but to order the deportations.

The strategy is meant to deter another wave of immigrants from crossing the border. The report came as the number of Central American children and families has risen in the past few months, prompting fears that a migration crisis similar to the one last summer could happen again.

In October and November, Border Patrol apprehended 12,505 families along the southwest border, compared with 4,577 families during those same months last year.

Pro-American reform groups, such as the Center for Immigration Studies, view the entire policy — and the associated public statements — as a p.r. exercise.

“I don’t think what they’ve announced, assuming it even happens, will be enough to deter the ongoing surge from Central America,” Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, wrote in an email.

Krikorian believes the plan is “intended to enable Hillary to say to voters in Ohio and Virginia that the Democrats stand between the extremes of … people like Trump and the kind-hearted but unrealistic open-borders crowd.”

Poll shows that few Americans want any immigration increase.

 

 

 

 

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