The recent flood of unaccompanied children from Central America illegally crossing the Southwest border into our country has become an immigration crisis for America.  Today, Congressman Rogers questioned Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on the issue during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing. The hearing was titled, “Dangerous Passage: The Growing Problem of Unaccompanied Children Crossing the Border” with Jeh Johnson, Craig Fugate, Administrator of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Ronald D. Vitiello, Deputy Chief of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as witnesses.

            “Right now, we have a crisis and I don’t see the Administration doing anything about it – other than trying to house the children.  I understand the humanitarian basis for that, but we need to send a signal to these other countries that it’s not going to work. You can’t send your children up here and let them stay,” Rogers said during the hearing.

This week, Rogers sent a letter to the President.  The letter states, “Our great nation has been and always will be a beacon of hope and freedom for the world. However, because of your Administration’s years-long, deliberate failure to enforce our immigration laws, our nation now faces a crisis at our Southwest border that threatens our sovereignty and adherence to the rule of law.  According to the Department of Homeland Security estimates, over 60,000 children will cross our border this year, and over 127,000 children will cross in 2015. Desperate families in poverty-stricken countries in search of a better life are putting their children in physical danger in order to cross our border. The surge of unaccompanied children at the border is a direct result of the decision to circumvent Congress and implement the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. The administrative decision to grant special status to children brought here illegally by their parents encourages and rewards the deliberate breaking of U.S. law and is tantamount to administrative amnesty.”

            After the hearing, Rogers stated, “It is simple, President Obama must enforce the laws on the books. His pro-amnesty executive actions are the root cause of this crisis and to ignore it makes matters even worse.”    

Video of the questions can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA3r1f5igwk