Obama's lax policies created this crisis

We have a major humanitarian crisis on our southern border. Many would call it an invasion. Unaccompanied alien children who have crossed the border in violation of our laws are being processed by HHS, and now President Obama is asking Congress to invest $2 billion dollars for more in-processing facilities for these illegal immigrants. This crisis has been precipitated by Obama administration policies and by not enforcing border security laws.

I understand that we only have operational control of 44 percent of the border. Border agents are being utilized to process the flood of illegal immigrants, which deflects from the border agents' enforcement duties.

Children are being used as pawns to create this human crisis. Many of the children are being abused on their journeys to the United States.

I have seen reports that 85 percent of the children are coming to the U.S. with telephone numbers of relatives to contact when the children are detained in the United States. The average stay for these children in processing areas is 15 to 30 days, at which time these children are released to "custodians" who are supposed to bring them to scheduled court dates. Ninety percent of these unfortunates fail to return for their court hearings. Common sense tells us that if people are paying their life savings to send their children to the United States, they do not expect them to return to their native countries.

This human trafficking has been aided and abetted by a president who has been lax in securing the border, has encouraged people to ignore our laws, and is engaging in emotional blackmail to achieve his political goals.

Tom L. Jones

Pingree Grove