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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Doubling down on DACA

The governor of Indiana is not happy with Obama.  There were 245 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) sent to Indiana from January 1 to July 1 and the administration didn't tell him.  He fired off a letter stating that Obama needs to secure the border, basically. Yeah, there are 245 more people in this state of almost 6.5 million people.  The strain on our economy must be tremendous, except for the fact that those kids are living with family members already here until they get asylum, or deported.

And try as I may, I have difficulty believing anyone who states our southern border isn't secure.  We have more border patrol, more fencing, more drones, more cameras more of anything you can think of on the border than any other time in our history.  If the border isn't "secure", it is at least the most secure it has ever been.

And the current immigration crisis is not a border security issue.  It's a lot more complex than that.  A story from the Vox goes over this issue in great detail, and I suggest reading it if you want to get a better understanding of what is going on at our southern border.  Basically, the surge in UACs are not coming from Mexico at all, but from the area comprised of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.

The reason UACs are fleeing that area is because of gang activity.  If you are a child from that area and you are recruited by a gang but don't accept, your family will be attacked.  So children are being sent from that area to other countries for asylum.

The US is getting most of these UACs, but one thing is certain, DACA is not the reason why.  For starters, to qualify you would have had to be in the country since 2007.  Secondly, the increase in UACs started in 2011, months before DACA was introduced.  Finally, interviews of UACs find that very few even know of the existence of DACA.

So why is DACA even an issue when we talk about border issues today?  Well, because Republicans don't like it, and they don't like what it is doing, allowing "illegals" to live in America while they are skirting our laws.  Never mind that we are following the law by taking these kids from Central America in.  We can turn Mexican children away, and most do get sent back after an interview to eliminate issues with trafficking (not that there aren't still problems sending back kids who are being trafficked).

Dana today brought all this together is doubling down on the DACA lie.  Why?  This is so easily debunked. Like how incandescent light bulbs were banned.  Dana talks about stashing them like that's the smart thing to do.  They are cheaper to buy, but over the long haul they cost you more.  So it's not smart, just rebellious.  But the funny thing is, incandescent bulbs are still being sold today.  You can't buy a 100w bulb, because the new more efficient 72w incandescent bulb has now replaced it, with the same light as the 100w.  75w is now 53w, 60w is 43w, 40w is 29w.  Because it wasn't a ban at all.  It was a new guideline on bulb efficiency.

But I digress.  No, DACA isn't the problem.  The problem is we have people like Dana who would rather lie about DACA being the problem than to help out kids.  Well, except as a photo op to give them sandwiches.

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