Don’t risk your kids, Obama tells Central American parents

MINNEAPOLIS – Under fire from Republicans for failing to stem the recent flood of young immigrants, President Barack Obama is delivering a message to Central American parents considering sending their children to the U.S. to escape violence and poverty at home: Don’t risk it.

“Our message absolutely is don’t send your children unaccompanied, on trains or through a bunch of smugglers,” Obama told ABC News on Thursday. “We don’t even know how many of these kids don’t make it, and may have been waylaid into sex trafficking or killed because they fell off a train.”

“Do not send your children to the borders,” Obama said. “If they do make it, they’ll get sent back. More importantly, they may not make it.”

The administration says an estimated 52,000 unaccompanied minors have been detained since October, driven from their homes by violence and false rumors that they’ll be allowed to stay.

Republicans argue that the Obama administration’s lax deportation policies and gaps in security at the border have fueled the rumors. Some have called on Obama to send the National Guard to address the crisis.

The situation is threatening to become a political liability for the president, who is pushing for an overhaul to the immigration system and has vowed to take executive action to ease deportations if lawmakers don’t act by the end of July. Obama’s advisers have slowed that timeline, as they consider whether the problems – and the images of crowded detention facilities and courts – stir up opposition ahead of the November election.

McClatchy-Tribune