A majority of Americans are unhappy at how president Barack Obama and his rivals in the Republican party are handling the crisis along the US border with Mexico caused by the influx of unaccompanied Central American child migrants, according to a newly published poll.
The Washington Post-ABC News poll found that almost six out of 10 Americans disapprove of how Mr Obama has dealt with more than 57,000 children who have sought to enter the US since October. About three-quarters of the children are from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras where they are fleeing gang violence and poverty.
Republicans perform even worse in the poll with 66 per cent of people saying they were displeased with how they had responded to the crisis that has overwhelmed US border patrol and immigration services attempting to house children, almost half of whom are between the ages of 15 and 17, arriving alone at the border.
A slim majority, 53 per cent, backs Mr Obama's request to Congress for $3.7 billion (€2.07 billion) in emergencyfunding to provide services to accommodate children arriving at the border and to accelerate deportations through a backlogged immigration courts system.
Disarray
The crisis has left Mr Obama’s plans to take executive action – part of his promised “phone and pen” second-term strategy for more action – on immigration reform in disarray. He had intended, in the absence of a divided Congress passing an overhaul of legislation, to permit more long-resident illegal immigrants to remain in the US.
The Democratic president and congressional Republicans are at loggerheads over how to respond to the crisis with Mr Obama’s rivals reluctant to sanction billions of dollars without the administration agreeing steps to stem the wave of child migrants.
Immigration has become a lightning rod issue in US politics with less than four months until the congressional midterm elections in November when Republicans are seeking a net gain of six seats to wrestle control of the Senate from Democrats.
Both sides have blamed the other's policies for creating this crisis. The White House has said that a 2008 anti-sex trafficking law passed by the then president George W Bush has jammed up the immigration courts because it grants children from countries other than Canada and Mexico a right to a legal hearing and representation by an advocate.
Republicans say Mr Obama’s 2012 decision to give legal status to the so-called undocumented who arrived as children before 2007 has created a false perception in Central America that child migrants are welcome in the US and has encouraged them to make the trek north.
Deportations
The White House has acknowledged the difficulties of easing off on deportations and deciding which settled illegal immigrants should stay while acting aggressively to curtail further new arrivals at the border.
"It's legally complicated," Cecilia Munoz, the director of the White House's domestic policy council and Mr Obama's leading immigration adviser, was quoted in The New York Times as saying. "That was always going to be true. It's just in higher relief now."
