Timeline: Border Surge Began a Few Months After Obama’s First Executive Action on Immigration

by John Sexton

President Obama’s executive actions on immigration did not begin with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in mid-2012. It began in 2011 with his announcement of “prosecutorial discretion” on deportations. A few months later the border patrol noted the first uptick in unaccompanied children at the border.

There has been an ongoing argument in the public sphere over whether or not President Obama’s executive action known as DACA is responsible for the current surge of unaccompanied children at the border. GOP members have claimed it is a contributing factor and some note that the June 15, 2012 announcement seems to coincide with the sharpest uptick in children arriving from Central America.

Progressives looking to dismiss this claim have pointed out that the first indications of a surge in the number of children took place in FY2012. Fiscal Year 2012 included the last part of 2011 as well as the first half of 2012, i.e. about eight months before DACA even existed. This, they claim, proves the problem could not have been caused by DACA. For example, this Vox explainer on whether the President’s policies encouraged the trend currently reads:

while the Obama administration itself has stressed that it doesn’t think DACA is a factor, officials including Vice President Joe Biden have also tried to tell Central American families that children shouldn’t come because they won’t be eligible for DACA — which reinforces the notion that the two are connected.

However, the influx of unaccompanied children started in the fall of 2011 — DACA wasn’t announced until June of 2012.

To read the rest of the article on Breitbart News: HERE

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