Immigration Reform: President To Use Executive Orders To Solve Border Crisis

President Obama has signaled that he will “fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own.” Since Congress has failed to pass an immigration reform bill, and doesn’t appear to be making any progress, the president is considering using executive orders to solve the immigration crisis, one way or another.

A situation at the border that continues to deteriorate.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, President Obama requested $3.7 billion to deal with the over 50,000 immigrant children coming over the border in lieu of a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

Republicans refused, and are now working on a plan that may have less than S1 billion in emergency spending. And Senate Democrats proposed a $2.7 billion package. All three of the emergency requests have little hope of getting through Congress.

In the meantime, the cost of feeding, transporting, and sheltering the children is piling up. With no emergency immigration reform package in sight, border patrol agents are having to constantly work overtime, leading to frayed nerves and frustration.

“Maybe they can’t handle so many kids. They’re fed up. They’re angry because they can send the adults back, but they have to attend to the children,” Said Jose Miguel, a seventeen-year-old Guatemalan boy.

Frigid holding cells, inadequate food and water, and sleep deprivation have led many of the children to file formal complaints against the customs and border patrol.

Deportation also carrying a heavy political cost for the President.

The White House has been under harsh criticism from immigration reform advocacy groups ever since they deported 59 women and children to San Pedro Sula, the murder capital of the world.

To prevent the situation from worsening, President Obama will resort to executive orders. According White House senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer, executive orders to effectively reform the immigration system, could come as early as the end the summer.

There are a couple of ideas being considered.

One would be to expedite the deportation process for unaccompanied minors, while at the same time granting temporary legal status to parents who are already here in the U.S. and raising children born in America. That action would effectively protect 5 million undocumented immigrants, while at the same time sending children back into harms way, a reform that may anger both liberals and conservatives.

Another option would be to reform and expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, an immigration program started in 2012 that protects minors entering the U.S. from deportation.

That option would also be unpopular with conservatives. Senator Tex Cruz has pushed to end the program and some conservatives claim the program created the current crisis by enticing Central American children to come to the U.S.

Despite calls for a real immigration reform bill from both the right and left, Congress continues to do nothing. The executive orders might force Congress to act, but it might just as well increase criticism of the White House’s immigration policy.

(Image Credit: John Moore / Getty Images[