Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel have been directed to no longer refer to illegal immigrant children crossing the border alone as “UACs” (unaccompanied alien children).

Instead these individuals are to be referred to as “unaccompanied children” in official correspondence, according to an internal ICE email obtained by the Center for Immigration Studies and shared with Breitbart News.

“This was briefed earlier today during he (sic) command and staff meeting,” an email sent to ICE personnel reads. “It has been requested that in correspondence regarding unaccompanied children, They (sic) not be referred to as UACs. The term UAC should not be used in official correspondence.”

President Barack Obama plans to highlight a positive side of the immigration debate by presiding over an Independence Day citizenship ceremony for service members who signed up to defend the U.S. even though they weren’t American citizens.

A total of 25 members of the Armed Forces will spend the Fourth of July as American citizens after the deputy secretary for homeland security delivers the oath of allegiance at a White House ceremony on Friday…

“They signed up to serve, to sacrifice, potentially to give their lives for the security of this country even though they weren’t yet Americans. That’s how much they love this country,” Obama said in announcing the ceremony earlier this week. “They were prepared to fight and die for an America they did not yet fully belong to. I think they’ve earned their stripes in more ways than one.”

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.

Texas officials appealed to the Obama administration on Thursday to secure the U.S.-Mexico border once and for all as waves of illegal immigrant children overwhelm the system, with one lawmaker saying U.S. military bases effectively have been transformed into camps to handle the influx.

“Our military bases are turning into refugee camps. I never thought I’d see this in the United States of America,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said…

Both McCaul and Perry said the solution is to send a tough message by deporting those caught crossing the border. They argued that allowing the migrants to stay is not the humanitarian response, despite what some advocacy groups say.

“These children are often subjected to beatings, starvation, sexual assault and are at risk of being trafficked,” McCaul said, describing the conditions of those who make the journey.

Opposition and criticism are building against Dallas County Commissioner Clay Jenkins’ plan to bring to Dallas 2,000 unaccompanied minors from Central America who crossed the Texas border…

Judge Jenkins said today that officials have consulted with neighbors around the three selected sites where the children will stay. He says no county tax dollars will be used to house the children here, because the federal government will pick up the tab.

Republicans like Cathie Adams of the social conservative group Texas Eagle Forum don’t believe it.

“We’re talking about housing, we’re talking about food, we’re talking about educating, we’re talking about medicating. This is a huge expense.”

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) believes the border crisis is not a national security threat, despite gangsters having already been apprehended along the United States-Mexico border.

In fact, Jackson Lee waved a bag of lollipops during a Thursday House Homeland Security Field Hearing in McAllen, Texas, and said she took bags of such lollipops to the illegal immigrant children in detention centers during recent visits.

Protesters who successfully blocked immigrant detainees from reaching a Border Patrol processing facility in Murrieta earlier this week say they’re ready to do it again should federal immigration officials attempt a similar drop-off…

“We’re going to be there,” [Carol Schlaepfer] vowed. “We’re going to do the same thing, and hopefully with greater numbers of people.”…

However, the buses that arrived at Murrieta on Tuesday weren’t the first and likely won’t be the last, Amaya said. Immigration officials said before Tuesday’s protests that buses were expected to arrive every 72 hours, but have since declined to elaborate…

“This was not victory. It was a loss for the city of Murrieta, for the community that we live in and love,” Dudley said. “It made this extremely compassionate community look heartless and uncaring.”

Ranchers along the Rio Grande say immigrant smugglers threaten them constantly.

One Cameron County rancher said smugglers ordered him to look the other way or face the consequences.

The landowner said smugglers are using trails on his property to bring illegal immigrants into the country.

The rancher said he fears for his safety.

“You don’t see anything; you don’t talk to anybody,” he said.

He said smugglers stop at nothing to get the immigrants across.

At a raucous town hall meeting in Murrieta Wednesday night, city officials had a message for residents who a day earlier successfully blocked immigrant detainees from entering a local Border Patrol processing facility: Blame the federal government.

At the meeting, during which roughly 750 area residents peppered local representatives and law enforcement personnel with their concerns over plans to move detained immigrants through the facility, Murrieta Mayor Alan Long reiterated the need for the federal government to do more to address the influx of undocumented immigrants…

Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone hit the national government harder, saying that there was a “lack of political will to protect our borders,” adding that the issue was a federal responsibility. He publicly demanded that Congress take action to secure the border.

Stone’s remarks were met by applause and cheers of “USA! USA!” from the crowd.

Nobody is doing any of these children the slightest favor by delaying a rapid return to their countries of origin, which in many cases is not Mexico.

Allowing them to remain here will only encourage the next group of individuals to undertake the same life-threatening journey.

Those who have come must be sent back to demonstrate, in no uncertain terms, that risking their lives to cross Mexico and enter our country simply isn’t worth it.