On Wednesday, President Obama threatened to veto the House of Representatives’ proposed border bill. Obama particularly disliked provisions of the bill designed to amend the 2008 law that allows illegal immigrant minors from non-border countries to stick around for years awaiting deportation proceedings.
His statement explained:
By setting arbitrary timelines for the processing of cases, this bill could create backlogs that could ultimately shift resources away from priority public safety goals, like deporting known criminals. This bill will undercut due process for vulnerable children which could result in their removal to life threatening situations in foreign countries.
In other words, Obama wants to keep newly arriving illegal immigrant children – not the ones who have already arrived, and are not covered by the House bill – stuck in legal limbo for two or more years.
Just weeks ago, Obama himself called for changes to the 2008 law. He sent a letter to Congress asking for authority to “exercise discretion in processing the return and removal of unaccompanied minor children from non-contiguous countries like Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest explained, “There are some challenges that are posed by the current law, this 2008 law.”
Now, however, Obama has flip-flopped on the issue – the better to polarize the debate around illegal immigration.
This isn’t the first time that Obama has flip-flopped on immigration. Here are four other instances of such wavering:
Border Security. Just a month ago, Obama proposed additional border security for the Rio Grande valley – and he wanted billions to fund it, supposedly. But in May
Read more here: Obama’s 5 Top Flip-Flops on Immigration
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