The President also ridiculed Republicans for their concerns and accused them of playing politics with issue of illegal immigration and border control.
Unsurprisingly, Republicans pounced on the falsehood and said Obama is out of touch with reality.
And as promised, leftist Democrats trying to remake the country into a nation of Democrat voters, reintroduced the DREAM Act, the virtual amnesty for the children of illegal aliens that failed to pass last year. Irony is, weeks ago, Napolitano said the Obama administration had enacted the law without its even passing Congress simply by refusing to deport illegals.
Obama’s Remarks
Obama uttered his falsehoods in a ballyhooed trip to the border on May 10, where he vowed to keep pressing for passage of the DREAM Act amnesty.
Over the last two years, thanks to the outstanding work of Janet and Alan and everybody who’s down here working at the border, we’ve answered those concerns. Under their leadership, we have strengthened border security beyond what many believed was possible. They wanted more agents at the border. Well, we now have more boots on the ground on the southwest border than at any time in our history.
The Border Patrol has 20,000 agents — more than twice as many as there were in 2004. It’s a build-up that began under President Bush and that we’ve continued, and I had a chance to meet some of these outstanding agents, and actually saw some of them on horseback who looked pretty tough. So we put the agents here.
Then they wanted a fence.… The fence is now basically complete.
Then we’ve gone further. We tripled the number of intelligence analysts working at the border. I’ve deployed unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the skies from Texas to California. We have forged a partnership with Mexico to fight the transnational criminal organizations that have affected both of our countries. And for the first time — for the first time we’re screening 100 percent of southbound rail shipments to seize guns and money going south even as we go after drugs that are coming north.
So, here’s the point. I want everybody to listen carefully to this. We have gone above and beyond what was requested by the very Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement. All the stuff they asked for, we’ve done. But even though we’ve answered these concerns, I’ve got to say I suspect there are still going to be some who are trying to move the goal posts on us one more time.
You know, they said we needed to triple the Border Patrol. Or now they’re going to say we need to quadruple the Border Patrol. Or they’ll want a higher fence. Maybe they’ll need a moat. Maybe they want alligators in the moat. They’ll never be satisfied. And I understand that. That’s politics.
After blaming the defeat of the DREAM Act on Republicans, Obama promised to "keep fighting" for the amnesty that would flood the country with even more illegals.
When Obama mentioned the fence, an audience member booed the remarks, while another shouted, "Tear it down." And when he began cracking wise about Republicans, another of the leftists in the crowd shouted, "They’re racist!"
True to Obama’s word, Democrats reintroduced the DREAM amnesty the day after his speech. But whether the bill passes doesn’t much matter, according to Napolitano and her top immigration deputy. A few weeks ago, she and John Morton, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, admitted that his agency does not deport those who illegals who fall under the parameters of the DREAM Act’s amnesty.
Border Is Not Secure
Obama cited a variety of statistics to prove the border is secure, echoing his Homeland Security chief, Napolitano, who has been peddling the same line in meetings with leftists and in testimony before Congress.
Problem is, they’re both wrong, according to the Government Accountability Office. A week after Napolitano told a group of leftists the border is secure, GAO border expert Richard Stana told a somewhat different story to the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
Our preliminary analysis of these Border Patrol data showed that the agency reported a capability to deter or detect and apprehend illegal entries at the immediate border across 129 of the 873 southwest border miles…. Our preliminary analysis also showed that Border Patrol reported the ability to deter or detect and apprehend illegal entries after they crossed the border for an additional 744 southwest border miles and 67 northern border miles.
So regardless of the 20,000 Border Patrol agents Obama cited in his speech — "more than twice as many as there were in 2004," he said — the border is not secure.
That just might be the reason GOP legislators quickly disputed Obama’s remarks.
Said Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas), "Despite the president’s rhetoric that he has gone ‘above and beyond’ to secure the border, this mission is not accomplished."
Concluded GOP Rep. Lamar Smith, also of Texas, "It is ironic that President Obama would travel so close to the border and still be so far from reality. It is clear President Obama is in full campaign mode, but his words do not match his record. He continues to ignore the facts."
The day after Obama’s visit, three top lawmen from Texas testified before McCaul’s subcommittee on Homeland Security Oversight, Investigations & Management. The subject was violence from drug cartels. “We have incursions every day. We have people that are afraid to go out on their property,” testified chief Victor Rodriguez of the McAllen, Texas, Police Department.
“It’s not more secure than it’s ever been,” Zapata Co. Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzales, Jr. told the committee. “It’s more violent.”
Testified Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, "The bottom line is that it’s not secure. There’s been a proliferation of organized crime in Texas.”
As well, the increase seizures and arrests at the border, McCraw told the subcommittee, “only prove that the border is not secure.”
Photo of Janet Napolitano: AP Images
