Tag: child immigration
Jeb Bush Tells Conservative Activists He Hopes To Be Their ‘Second Choice’

Jeb Bush Tells Conservative Activists He Hopes To Be Their ‘Second Choice’

By Michael A. Memoli and Kathleen Hennessey, Tribune Washington Bureau (TNS)

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Jeb Bush defended his credentials as a “reform-minded conservative” Friday, even as he held firm to positions that threaten to undermine his standing with party activists, telling skeptics at the Conservative Political Action Conference he hoped to be their “second choice.”

During a question-and-answer session with Fox News host Sean Hannity before a packed ballroom at the annual gathering of conservative activists, the former Florida governor acknowledged that many are suspicious of his potential candidacy. He emphasized that Republicans need to appeal to a broader audience of people who could become supporters.

“There are a lot of other conservatives that haven’t been asked. They don’t know that they’re conservative,” he said. “If we share our enthusiasm, love for our country and believe in our philosophy, we will be able to get Latinos and young people and other people that we need to win,” he said.

The crowd’s doubts about Bush were evident early. When Hannity conducted an informal audience poll of potential 2016 candidates, Bush’s name provoked a chorus of boos.

Hours before his speech, Laura Ingraham, the conservative radio host, launched a broadside against the son and brother of former presidents, saying he would be better off running on a ticket with Hillary Clinton than leading the Republican ticket against her.

Questioning Bush, Hannity asked about the gap between him and many conservatives, particularly on immigration and education policy.

“I read about it,” Bush quipped.

Speaking at a rapid-fire pace, Bush offered quick and practiced answers on most of the topics that have complicated his relationships with conservatives.

On immigration, he reiterated his support for some kind of path to legal status for those who have come to the U.S. illegally, saying there “is no plan to deport 11 million people.”

“We should give them a path to legal status where they work, where they don’t receive government benefits, where they learn English and they make a contribution to our society,” he said.

But Bush also said he opposed President Barack Obama’s recent executive actions that would shield up to 5million from deportation. He supported a congressional effort to try to block the policy, he said, but not if doing so risked funding for the Department of Homeland Security.

“I’m not an expert on the ways of Washington. It makes no sense to me that we’re not funding control of our border, which is the whole argument,” he said.

He stood by his support for granting driver’s licenses and in-state tuition to some immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. The latter, he noted, was enacted in Florida just last year “by one of the most conservative state legislatures, I might add, and a conservative governor … Not by me.”

Bush also defended his support for education standards known as the Common Core, saying he supported the idea of set standards but suggesting he was aligned with conservatives on his opposition to involvement by the federal involvement.

The Obama administration has meddled in the process with its “Race to the Top” program that ties school money to achievement on standardized tests, Bush said.

“The federal government has no role in the creation of standards either directly or indirectly,” he said. “The role of the federal government, if there is any, is to provide incentives for more school choice.”

Bush also denied reports that he may be shifting his opposition to same-sex marriage as he courts gay donors.

“No, I believe in traditional marriage,” he said.

He won cheers by declaring he opposes legalizing marijuana but believes “states ought to have that right to do it.”

The two-day conference, at a hotel just outside Washington, D.C., featured an opening-day lineup heavy with first-time national candidates eager to make a strong impression and a Friday agenda that revealed the potential challenge, and opportunity, of the ideological diversity in the party.

Before Bush spoke, “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson was on stage delivering a meandering speech that went beyond his allotted time. Earlier, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky (R-KY), defended his vision of a more limited foreign policy only to be followed immediately by Rick Santorum’s push for a more aggressively military response to the militants of the Islamic State.

On the schedule in between was Donald Trump advocating, well, Donald Trump.

But speeches by Bush and Paul best captured the choice between establishment favorite and a grassroots-backed wild card.

Paul has traditionally thrived with the CPAC audience — he won the 2014 presidential preference straw poll — and again drew the most enthusiastic reaction here.

His afternoon speech, delayed by votes in the Senate, was grounded in libertarian principles. He said conservatives’ support for limited government at home should inform their foreign policy, too.

“Conservatives should not succumb to the notion that a government inept at home will somehow succeed abroad, that a government that can’t even deliver the mail will somehow be able to create nations abroad,” the Kentucky Republican declared.

His view of national defense — “unparalleled, undefeatable and unencumbered by nation-building” — was an extension of Ronald Reagan’s advocacy of “peace through strength,” he said.

At home, Paul said his travels to communities often ignored by the GOP, including Detroit and Ferguson, Mo., have shown him that “liberal policies have failed.”

“Those of us who have enjoyed the American dream must break down a wall that separates us from the other America,” he said, before promising to “cut everyone’s taxes, from richest to poorest.”

CPAC has long attracted Republican White House hopefuls eager to make a splash before a conservative audience. But this year, the American Conservative Union, the event’s organizer, has done more to present it as a presidential audition.

Rather than just allow would-be candidates to deliver a red-meat speech, the group has required candidates to follow their opening remarks with a question-and-answer session. Conservative media figures including Ingraham and Hannity have led the questioning.

Last year, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), delivered a stern speech to CPAC focused almost singularly on foreign policy. In his opening remarks this time, Rubio again hewed to his message about the importance of American leadership on the world stage. He silenced the crowd with an emotional, personal pitch.

“This is deeply personal,” he said. “America doesn’t owe me anything. But I have a debt to America that I will never be able to repay.”

Then, however, he sat with Hannity, who peppered him with questions about more politically difficult parts of his record, particularly immigration. Rubio’s support for a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill in 2013 is extremely unpopular with many conservatives.

Rubio said the lesson he has learned in the two years since he helped write that legislation was that you can’t discuss pathways to citizenship until Americans believe “that future illegal immigration will be controlled.”

Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, said the changes to the format are about giving conservative activists “the best experience they can get.”

“We’re trying to bring the stage out among them to make it less imposing, to make it easier to interact with the speakers and make the speakers interact with them,” he said.

“The prospects for conservatives to be successful in 2016 are incredibly high,” he added. “And conservatives have a chance to make sure that a conservative nominee is the standard bearer.”

Former Governor Jeb Bush speaks at the 42nd annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Feb. 27, 2015 in National Harbor, Md. Conservative activists attended the annual political conference to discuss their agenda. (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press/TNS)

Immigrants Unlikely To Spread Disease, But May Need Medical Care

Immigrants Unlikely To Spread Disease, But May Need Medical Care

By Seema Yasmin and Sherry Jacobson, The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS — Despite concerns about the potential public health crisis posed by immigrant children crossing the Texas-Mexico border, medical experts say the likelihood of their spreading disease is low.

Still, experts in emergency preparedness are urging health care providers and Texas to get ready for many children who may need basic medical care.

“Four, five, or a dozen children may not strain the system, but we’re now talking about thousands and thousands of children” who have very unique physiological and psychological needs, said Michael Anderson, a Cleveland, Ohio, pediatrician and expert in pediatric disaster response.

More than 57,000 children have traveled alone from Central American countries and have been detained by U.S immigration authorities at South Texas holding facilities this year. That number could reach 90,000 by year’s end.

Many are being transferred to other immigration centers, and 2,000 are expected to be housed in Dallas later this summer.

As of late last week, state health officials have reported three cases of tuberculosis, 23 cases of chicken pox, and three cases of flu among children housed in detention centers in South Texas, said Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

“We’ve had no reports of measles,” she said. “Generally, the potential for a wider public health issue is there. But the biggest risk we are seeing for the people in the detention centers is because of the lack of hand-washing facilities.”

Immigrant children typically pose little threat to public health, says the state’s top pediatrician.

“The general public doesn’t need to be concerned that there are going to be outbreaks of illness due to these immigrant children,” says Dr. Mark Ward, president of the Texas Pediatric Society, which represents 2,800 pediatricians. “Most of these children will not have an illness that puts others at risk.”

Recently, Gov. Rick Perry weighed in with his concerns about unsanitary conditions at the Texas facilities where the children are being housed. His June 20 letter to President Barack Obama asked for state inspections to ensure international and national sanitary standards are met.

“Officials who have visited such facilities indicate insufficient bathroom facilities, lack of adequate water supplies, and other conditions that could result in epidemics of pertussis, tuberculosis, and other diseases,” Perry’s letter said. Such diseases could threaten not only the children, but employees and communities where the detainees might end up, he warned.

Every immigrant child undergoes a medical screening by a paramedic or emergency medical technician, looking for rashes, fevers, and coughing, said Jessica Maxwell, spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security’s health affairs office.

Such symptoms would send a child for a second screening by a doctor, nurse, or physician’s assistant working for federal Health and Human Services.

“Any child who needs medical treatment is sent to a local emergency room, and if they are suspected to have a communicable disease, such as chicken pox or tuberculosis, they are quarantined, vaccinated, and treated,” she said. “It’s a very small amount of children, compared to the general population.”

The most common medical complaint among these new arrivals, Maxwell said, “relates to their journey: dehydration, exhaustion, foot and ankle injuries.”

Providing prompt medical screening and treatment for ailments will save money in the long run, Ward said. “It makes sense to treat things now while they’re minor instead of letting them become serious and more costly to treat,” he said.

But many of the children remain in overcrowded conditions, sleeping side by side on the floor.

“Scabies and lice is primarily what we’re seeing,” said Shawn Moran, spokesman for the National Border Patrol Council, which represents 16,500 border agents. His group is calling for a more comprehensive medical response.

“You’ve got people in such close quarters,” Moran said. “I’m hearing there’s trouble getting cleaning supplies to kill off the infestations we’re seeing.”

Scabies is a contagious skin infection caused by mites, which usually results in a rash and relentless itching. Head lice, another parasite, infest the hair and neck and also cause itching. Both are easily treated.

“This facility is not intended for long-term detention, 72 hours at the most,” said Moran, who is based in San Diego. He visited the overcrowded Rio Grande immigration facility in May.

Moran said most of the young immigrants appeared to be teenagers, although he declined to provide an exact percentage. He estimated that about 100 to 150 of them were under a year old, although the babies were accompanied by a relative, usually a teen.

Federal officials have been reluctant to discuss the children and their medical needs. They have not provided demographic information, including breakdown by age and gender.

“Some of them are illiterate,” Moran said of the immigrants. “They are unable to tell us what town they are from, much less know their vaccination history.”

Photo: Los Angeles Times/MCT/Michael Robinson Chavez

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Teens Tell Tales Of Traveling — Without Parents — Across U.S.-Mexico Border

Teens Tell Tales Of Traveling — Without Parents — Across U.S.-Mexico Border

By Alfonso Chardy, The Miami Herald

MIAMI — Soon after crossing into Mexico from Guatemala, 17-year-old Ana became separated from the group of Hondurans with whom she had been traveling and wound up alone in a mountain cottage where she was repeatedly raped by strangers.

“They threatened me, saying that if I ever said something about this they were going to kill me,” Ana said amid tears during an interview in a Little Havana home. “The only thing I begged them was not to harm me. The only thing I was thinking was that they were going to kill me. That I was going to die.”

Ana’s ordeal was the most extraordinary in a series of harrowing stories told by minors from Central America, part of an unprecedented exodus of thousands of unaccompanied children crossing the Mexican border into the United States.

Miami is one of 10 cities where the children are being sent for immigration proceedings as border shelters fill up.

Though unaccompanied children have arrived in the United States for decades, the number has reached levels not seen before after 2011 — with the majority coming from Central America, largely Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The number of unaccompanied children jumped from an annual average of 6,800 between fiscal years 2004 and 2011 to more than 13,000 in 2012 and to more than 24,000 in 2013, according to a November 2013 report from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). About 50,000 unaccompanied children have arrived since Oct. 1, according to U.S. officials.

While each child may have his or her own reasons for making the perilous journey, immigration attorneys and activists who represent the children say the main reason they are fleeing is intensified gang violence in their home countries as well as abuse and physical violence in their own homes.

Karen, another Honduran teen, said physical violence by her own father and threats from gangs propelled her to leave her country. She said she tried to find safety by moving out of her hometown to other parts of Honduras, but she concluded that the United States was the only safe place for her. Gangs in Honduras and other Central American countries are widespread, posing national security threats because they have become efficient criminal organizations similar to the Mexican drug-trafficking cartels.

Interviews in Miami last week with half a dozen unaccompanied minors who reached the United States show that escaping gang violence is a prime factor in the exodus. Some, like Andrea from El Salvador, were also seeking to join parents who had emigrated earlier. But Andrea herself also cited gang threats as the primary reason for her trip. All of the minors interviewed asked that their last names not be published because of the sensitivity of their cases and pending immigration proceedings.

Ana’s fateful journey began in Honduras in February.

“I was threatened by the gangs of Honduras and, because of the gangs, my 17-year-old brother was killed three years ago,” Ana recalled. “The gangs also threatened to kill me if I didn’t join them.”

Ana was the youngest in a group of 12 Hondurans, including adults, who boarded buses and cars to reach the U.S. border.

After crossing into Mexico from Guatemala, Ana suffered the worst experience of her young life — the rape by several men who abducted her after she became separated from her group.

“It was early morning and dark, and when we reached a cottage in a mountain, the men grabbed me after my group disappeared,” she recalled.

After raping her, the attackers left. At sunrise, her group found her and the trip resumed toward the U.S. border.

Karen, the other Honduran teen, is represented by Elizabeth Sanchez Kennedy, staff attorney at Catholic Legal Services in Miami.

In an interview at the Catholic Legal Services office in downtown Miami, Karen recounted her trip.

She also crossed the Rio Grande on a raft one cold moonlit night when she was 17.

She traveled on foot, buses, and vans through Guatemala and Mexico to reach a border point near Reynosa, Mexico, which is across from McAllen, Texas.

Karen said she fled Honduras because her father physically abused her and gangs threatened to kill her.

“I think it’s very important for people to understand that this young lady’s case is a very typical case and that they embark on this very perilous and dangerous journey only as a last resort,” said Randolph McGrorty, executive director of Catholic Legal Services of the Archdiocese of Miami. “She really tried to seek safety in her own country on many different occasions. She didn’t take this journey lightly. She didn’t take it on the promise of a work permit. She took it to save her life.”

In her own words, this is how Karen, now 19, describes the reasons for leaving Honduras.

“I was fearful of my father’s physical mistreatment of me, and fearful of the gangs,” she said. “They killed my cousin and my aunt.”

While many of the unaccompanied children are arriving from Honduras, there are also significant numbers coming from El Salvador and Guatemala.

Andrea, who was 14 when she crossed the border, traveled from Sensuntepque, about 40 miles northeast of the capital, San Salvador.

She said she fled El Salvador because gang members were pressuring her to join. Andrea’s mother, Sandra, said she encouraged her daughter to come to the United States so the family could be together.

“It is very hard for us as parents to expose our children to the dangers of these journeys,” Sandra told reporters in explaining why she had allowed her daughter to come to the United States by herself. “It is not easy for a parent to do this, but it is necessary to keep a family together.”

Andrea, now 15, said that for a month earlier this year she endured hunger, cold, and seemingly interminable walks to finally make it across the border.

“I was very scared,” said Andrea. “I thought I was never going to arrive. That something bad was going to happen to me.”

After being detained in a shelter near the border, immigration authorities released her and she then flew to Miami and rejoined her mother at Miami International Airport.

Andrea said her goal now is to stay in the United States, study hard, and “achieve something in life.”

Photo: El Nuevo Herald / MCT/ Roberto Koltun

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Don’t Send Kids To U.S., Obama Tells Central American Parents

Don’t Send Kids To U.S., Obama Tells Central American Parents

By Kathleen Hennessey, Tribune Washington Bureau

MINNEAPOLIS — President Barack Obama is telling Central American parents considering sending their children to the U.S. border to escape violence and poverty to keep them at home.

“Our message absolutely is don’t send your children unaccompanied, on trains or through a bunch of smugglers,” Obama told ABC News on Thursday in an interview. “We don’t even know how many of these kids don’t make it, and may have been waylaid into sex trafficking or killed because they fell off a train.”

“Do not send your children to the borders,” Obama said. “If they do make it, they’ll get sent back. More importantly, they may not make it.”

Republicans in Congress, who blame the influx of minors on a drop in deportations, have called in recent days for Obama to make such a public warning.

The president called the surge of young immigrants at the border a “humanitarian crisis.”

The administration says an estimated 52,000 unaccompanied minors have been detained since October, driven from their homes by violence and false rumors that they’ll be allowed to stay.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is helping to house and care for the new arrivals, and the administration has vowed to use all resources available to address the crisis. But Obama has resisted calls from some Republicans in Congress to send additional National Guard troops to the border to help stem the flow of minors.

The situation is threatening to become a political liability for the president and has his advisers rethinking plans to take executive action to ease deportation policies this fall.

AFP Photo/Jim Watson

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