Obama has the wrong prescription for border crisis

In the Rose Garden, Obama blamed the current “humanitarian crisis” on the U.S. immigration system. The children crossing the border “are being apprehended,” the president said, “but the problem is that our system is so broken, so unclear, that folks don’t know what the rules are.”

It would be more accurate to say the problem is that American law and Obama administration policy make it extremely difficult for the U.S. to send the unaccompanied children home to Central America. The parents and other family members who send the children know that and believe, correctly, that there is a very good chance the children will be able to stay in the United States permanently.

If the House passed the Gang of Eight bill today, and the president signed it into law, that problem would not be fixed.