[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12715-12716]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     THE BLAME BARACK OBAMA CAUCUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Jeffries) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JEFFRIES. Madam Speaker, we have a humanitarian crisis at our 
border that challenges the capacity of the United States of America to 
address it from both a resource perspective and from a compassionate 
perspective.
  Tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors are seeking entry into this 
country, children who are fleeing extreme violence in the northern 
triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
  Now, there are some in this institution who want to lay blame for 
this crisis at the feet of the Obama administration. This is not a 
surprising development because these individuals are members of the BBO 
caucus, the blame Barack Obama caucus.
  Whenever anything happens in this country or in this world, they want 
to blame the President of the United States. Something goes wrong in 
Iraq, a war that was prosecuted, that was botched, that was mismanaged 
by the previous administration, the BBO caucus blames Barack Obama.
  So we are seeing a similar phenomenon as it relates to this 
humanitarian crisis. First, they claim it was brought about by the 
President's decision related to deferred action connected to 
individuals falling into the DREAMer category.

                              {time}  1045

  But they failed to note that in order to be eligible for deferred 
action, you have to be in this country continuously since 2007. That 
claim has no basis in reality.
  Then they say, well, the President refuses to enforce our Nation's 
immigration laws. How silly is that argument? Hundreds of thousands of 
individuals have been deported by the Obama administration each and 
every year in record numbers, particularly when compared to the 
previous Republican President. The unenforcement argument has no basis 
in reality.
  Then, lastly, they say, well, this has to do with comprehensive 
immigration

[[Page 12716]]

reform. Comprehensive immigration reform is not the law of the land. 
The bill was passed by the Senate. It hasn't even been acted upon by 
the House, let alone sent to the President for his signature. And even 
if a pathway toward citizenship were created, if you look at the 
legislation, only individuals in this country since December of 2011 
would be eligible.
  Yet the blame Barack Obama caucus doesn't care about the facts. Well, 
here are the facts. The individuals, the children who are fleeing and 
who are coming to this country, are trying to escape extreme violence, 
gang activity, drug trafficking, sexual abuse, and intimidation. The 
Northern Triangle countries of Central America--El Salvador, Guatemala, 
and Honduras--are among the most violent in the world. Honduras is the 
murder capital of the world--number one. El Salvador is number four, 
and Guatemala is number five.
  How do we know that this phenomenon is not simply Uncle Sam throwing 
his hands up saying come into our country? Well, here is another 
reason. All of the Central American neighbors to our south outside of 
these Northern Triangle countries have also experienced an exponential 
increase in unaccompanied minors. Mexico, Belize, Panama, Costa Rica, 
and Nicaragua have all experienced significant increases in children 
coming to those countries, more than a 400 percent increase 
collectively in asylum applications in 2012.
  This is not a pull from the United States. These children are running 
for their lives. And so we have got to address it with an understanding 
of what is the root cause of the humanitarian crisis.
  Several of us on the Judiciary Committee have introduced the 
Vulnerable Immigrant Voice Act because we believe that the 
unaccompanied children should have access to counsel. It would benefit 
the taxpayer in making immigration proceedings more efficient and 
ensuring expedited removal when merited and in making sure that 
unnecessary detention doesn't take place.
  Now, many of these children will not have a valid legal basis to 
remain, but some will. Some will have asylum claims, U visa, or Special 
Immigrant Juvenile Status, and for that reason we should give them 
access to counsel and do what is right for these children.

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