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Obama pressed to visit U.S.-Mexico border

The Columbian
Published: July 4, 2014, 12:00am

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is facing mounting calls from Republicans to take a firsthand look at the immigration emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, putting him on the spot concerning what he has called the “humanitarian crisis” of tens of thousands of unaccompanied children flooding in from Central America.

“If he doesn’t come to the border, I think it’s a real reflection of his lack of concern of what’s really going on there,” declared Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a possible GOP presidential candidate in 2016.

The White House said Thursday that Obama currently has no plans to visit the border when he travels to Texas next week, primarily to fundraise for Democratic congressional candidates. A trip to the border could result in awkward optics for the president, who would be unlikely to meet with youngsters he’s seeking to deport and would risk upsetting immigration advocates who oppose the deportations if he were to meet with Border Patrol agents or other law enforcement.

Administration officials say that Perry and other Republicans are merely trying to score political points rather than working to resolve a major problem. But the political concerns aren’t so easily dismissed for Obama.

The border crisis has put him in the difficult position of asking Congress for more money and authority to send the children back home at the same time he’s seeking ways to allow millions of other people already in the U.S. illegally to stay.

The White House also wants to keep the focus of the debate in this midterm election year on Republican lawmakers whom the president has accused of blocking progress on a comprehensive overhaul of America’s immigration laws. Obama announced this week that, due to a lack of progress on Capitol Hill, he was moving forward to seek out ways to adjust U.S. immigration policy without congressional approval.

“He’s totally flipped from doing everything possible to give Republicans the space to get to ‘yes’ to doing everything possible to cement the reputation of the GOP as anti-immigrant and to bolster the Democratic Party’s image as the party that’s for them,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, a leading advocacy group.

The advocates are pushing Obama to provide work permits to the up to 9 million people who would have been eligible for citizenship under a comprehensive immigration bill passed by the Senate a year ago that stalled in the GOP-led House.

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