Applauding President Barack Obama’s executive order, Congressman Joaquín Castro, D-San Antonio, said Congress has failed to address the thousands of unaccompanied Central American children now here in the state.
Obama called the surge of Central American children to the United States through Texas a "humanitarian crisis" and said he can no longer wait on Congress to pass an immigration reform bill.
The President announced he would order a shift of immigration enforcement resources from the interior of the country toward the southern border.
"The country has been waiting a long time for Republicans in the House of Representatives to take action on immigration reform," Castro said. "People from the left and the right...have been pushing congress to put this up for a vote and it hasn’t happened."
Obama's plan calls for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate with all other federal agencies in the capturing, processing and housing for these unaccompanied minors; it also sends more immigration judges to Texas.
“I think the children who came here unaccompanied, some of them as young as 4, 5, or 6 years old, should given due process and should be considered for asylum,” Castro said.
