GOP leader calls for migrant children 'warehouses' in Central America

GOP leader calls for migrant children 'warehouses' in Central America

Michael McCaul, chair of committee on homeland security, leads charge of Republican attacks on president over border crisis

A senior Republican has proposed that the US government should build “warehouses” in Central America where thousands of unaccompanied children who have attempted to seek asylum in the US could be deported and processed on their return to their countries of origin.

Michael McCaul, a Republican member of Congress from Texas who chairs the House committee on homeland security, has proposed that rather than build extra facilities on domestic soil to handle the surge in numbers of child immigrants attempting to cross the US border, facilities should be located in the territories from which the minors came. “I’m not in favour of building large warehouses in the US to warehouse these kids, I think we have to have deterrence and if we are to build facilities we should think about doing that in the countries of origin in Central America,” he said.

Speaking on Fox News Sunday, McCaul said that Republicans would not write a blank cheque for dealing with the border situation, which he said had reached crisis proportions. President Obama last week asked Congress for $3.7bn in emergency funds to expand the system of immigration courts and speed up the process for dealing with child immigrants crossing the southern border, who have exceeded 50,000 since last October.

Republican leaders gave a round of interviews on the Sunday political shows, clearly sensing that the White House is on the defensive over the child immigrant issue. The opposition party has sought to turn the political flurry into Obama’s Katrina, by suggesting that the president’s decision not to tour the border in Texas last week was a sign that he was as out of touch as his predecessor George Bush had been over the New Orleans disaster in 2005.

The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, accused Obama on CBS’s Face the Nation of not caring about what was happening on America’s southern flank, which he called a “monumental humanitarian” problem. He said he had warned the president in May 2012 about the pending crisis with unaccompanied minors but nothing had been done about it.

“It could have been stopped years ago had the administration listened and focused on what was happening at the border. Time after time you see a response from this administration that is, you know, we are really not that interested in the southern border of the United States,” he said.

For their part, Democrats are hoping to rebuff intensifying conservative criticism over the border issue by counter-attacking that Republican leaders are callous and uncaring towards vulnerable immigrant children. The Democratic party currently enjoys widespread support among Latino voters partly as a result of Republicans’ resistance to comprehensive immigration reforms that would provide a pathway towards citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Joaquín Castro, the Democratic Congressman from the 20th district of Texas, said that unaccompanied minors should not be deported back to possible violence and abuse in central America without their claims for asylum being heard. “These folks need to be given the chance to go to court and argue their case. It raises the question: who do we consider to be a refugee in America in the 21st century, and that's a very tough question for us and it tugs at our conscience.”

Castro did concede, however, that it was important for Obama to visit the border area at some point in the near future.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/13/border-crisis-immigration-children-warehouses-republicans-america

Wharehousing children!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FGS!

The Guardian wrote:A senior Republican has proposed that the US government should build “warehouses” in Central America where thousands of unaccompanied children who have attempted to seek asylum in the US could be deported and processed on their return to their countries of origin.

Republican idiot. Doesn't he think the host nations would object to "warehouses" for their own children?

Republicans are still thinking about torture, kidnapping and rendering, aren't they? Now a concentration camp for "unaccompanied children who have attempted to seek asylum in the US."

My own recommendation, made months ago, is that Republicans and conservatives be deported to South America, perhaps Argentina or Paraguay, where they would be most comfortable. They could put up mock three-bedroom homes, and they would never notice the anchor fence.

Well they can't just let them roam around can they? Warehouses might be fun for a kid.

Raggamuffin wrote:Well they can't just let them roam around can they? Warehouses might be fun for a kid.

Who, the Republicans? That's why I mentioned the Anchor fences.  ::D::