No doubt there have been bigger wastes of taxpayers’ money, but the Obama administration’s “public information campaign,” supposedly aimed at dissuading Central Americans from crashing our borders, could certainly be classified as money down the drain.
The Obama administration’s response to the border surge (the one they assured us was over) has been to spread the word across the Central America that showing up at our borders with children in tow would result in a quick turnaround that lands them back where they started. As is often the case with this administration, their words do not match their deeds.
It’s the administration’s deeds that the latest waves of illegal aliens from Central America are paying attention to. According to the Border Patrol, which interviews the migrants who are caught (or, more accurately, who turn themselves into the Border Patrol), most believe that showing up with kids will result in them getting to stay in the U.S. The Associated Press reports that the Central American migrants believed “they would be permitted to stay in the United States and collect public benefits, according to internal intelligence files from the Homeland Security Department.”
They believe all these things because they’re true. The vast majority are released from custody with Notices to Appear for a hearing at some future date that both the illegal aliens and the Border Patrol know will never be honored.
And, while the government is squandering your money telling would-be migrants not to come, those who have already made here are sending word back to friends and relatives in Central America (for free on social media), telling them exactly the opposite. Adding fuel to the latest wave of illegal immigration from Central America is a ruling over the summer by a single federal judge ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release most of the illegal aliens being held in family detention centers – a ruling that Obama administration has agreed to comply with.
A cynic might wonder whether the administration’s “public information campaign” is actually intended to deter illegal aliens from coming to this country, or is another attempt to deceive the American people into believing they are doing something to stop mass illegal immigration.