By Marty Graham

MURRIETA Calif. (Reuters) – Protesters shouting anti-immigration slogans blocked the arrival of three buses carrying undocumented Central American families to a U.S. Border Patrol station on Tuesday after they were flown to San Diego from Texas.

The migrants, a group of around 140 adults and children, were sent to California to be assigned case numbers and undergo background checks before most were likely to be released under limited supervision to await deportation proceedings, U.S. immigration officials said.

But plans to bring the immigrants to a Border Patrol outpost in Murrieta, 60 miles (100 km) north of San Diego, sparked an outcry from town mayor Alan Long, who said the migrants posed a public safety threat to his community.

The group is part of a growing wave of families and unaccompanied minors fleeing Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras and streaming by the thousands into the United States by way of human trafficking networks through Mexico.

Most have shown up in Texas, overwhelming detention and processing facilities there.

The surge has left U.S. immigration officials scrambling to handle mass numbers of Central American migrants who, by law, the government cannot immediately deport, as they normally could illegal border crossers of Mexican or Canadian origin.

More than 52,000 unaccompanied children from Central America have been caught trying to sneak over the U.S.-Mexico border since October, double the number from the same period the year before, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures. Thousands more were apprehended with their parents.

The group caught up in Tuesday’s confrontation arrived by plane at midday in San Diego from Texas, where they had been apprehended while trying to cross the border, and were put on three unmarked buses for the ride to Murrieta.

As the buses neared their destination, some 150 protesters waiving American flags and shouting “Go home – we don’t want you here,” filled a street leading to the access road for the Border Patrol station, blocking the buses from reaching the facility.

The demonstrators disregarded orders from police to disperse, but officers did not attempt to intervene physically to break up the demonstration.

After about 25 minutes, the buses backed up, turned around and left. A board member of the union representing border patrol agents, Chris Harris, said the buses would likely be rerouted to one of six other Border Patrol stations in the San Diego sector.

Lois Haley, a spokesman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, declined to say where the buses were headed.

Local television station San Diego 6 said the buses went to the Chula Vista Station where about 140 migrants, mainly women and children, could be seen entering, though it was unclear if they were processed inside. It also said several of the children were taken to hospital for unspecified treatment.

A supervisor at Chula Vista declined to comment.

A separate group of undocumented families with children was being sent on Tuesday to a similar processing facility in El Centro, California, a desert community about 100 miles east of San Diego, U.S. immigration officials said. But there was no word on any disruptions of their arrival.

(Reporting by Marty Graham and Eric M. Johnson; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Alison Williams)

• Immigration Issues
• Politics & Government
• San Diego

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s abrupt shift from seeking immigration legislation to pursuing a go-it-alone executive strategy raises expectations among immigration advocates that Obama may have trouble satisfying while setting up a clash with House Republicans who’ve already threatened to sue him.

Limited in his powers to ease deportations and under pressure to crack down on a tide of Central American children entering the U.S. without their parents, Obama has only so many options to tackle an immigration conundrum complicated by a midterm election that could cost him Democratic control of the Senate.

Obama on Monday blamed Republican resistance for the demise of sweeping immigration legislation and vowed to bypass Congress to patch up the system. “If Congress will not do their job, at least we can do ours,” Obama said.

But seeking to slow deportations while simultaneously stemming the flow of young people across the U.S. Southern border presents Obama with a knotty set of policy choices.

He has asked Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder for recommendations by the end of summer on the types of executive actions he could take to address some of the aims of a comprehensive bipartisan bill that passed the Senate last year. Among the steps he could consider would be to focus deportations on people with serious criminal records, something the administration has already tried to do, with mixed results.

For now, White House officials say he will refocus resources from the interior of the country to the border.

Many immigrant advocates want far broader changes that would shield millions of immigrants now here illegally from deportation by expanding a two-year-old program that granted work permits to certain immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children. It’s uncertain how far the president will go to meet those demands.

Dropping by a White House gathering of immigration advocates who were meeting with his senior advisers Monday, Obama promised he would take “aggressive” steps, according to some participants, but cautioned that he could not match on his own what broader legislation would accomplish.

In his public remarks Monday, he conceded the limits of his own authority, noting that unlike an executive action that would last only as long as he is president, legislation would be permanent.

At the same time, Obama asked Congress for more money and additional authority to make it easier to deport recent border crossers, including the unaccompanied youths from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, and to hire more immigration judges and open more detention facilities. Those proposals found little support in the White House meeting, signaling to Obama and his aides the difficulty he could face managing the labor, business, religious and Hispanic coalition behind the push for an immigration overhaul.

Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, and Eliseo Medina, the union’s secretary treasurer, were among those at the meeting and praised Obama’s decision to move on his own in the absence of congressional action. But they urged caution on how to deal with the influx of young people.

“We also hope that as President Obama moves forward with administrative action, he will carefully and humanely address the urgent crisis of unaccompanied immigrant minors,” the two said in a statement following the meeting. “Children — from whatever country they may come from — who are fleeing from violence or trying to reunite with their families obliges our country’s leaders to act in the most compassionate and thoughtful way possible.”

Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Panama, where he was to meet Tuesday with the country’s new president. Kerry will also meet with the presidents of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala to discuss what they can do jointly to get the young, unaccompanied border crossers back and to seek ways to prevent this situation from occurring in the future.

Republicans, who have blamed Obama policies for attracting youths over the border, argued Obama has overstepped his authority in the past and has been rebuked twice in four days by the Supreme Court.

“He wants a comprehensive immigration overhaul that’s his way or the highway,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said. “It’s disturbing that this president believes he can be a one-man legislative branch when it comes to our immigration laws.” House Speaker John Boehner has announced plans to pursue a lawsuit against Obama over his use of executive authority.

Obama’s announcement came almost a year to the day after the Senate passed a historic immigration bill that would have spent billions to secure the border and offered a path to citizenship for many of the 11.5 million people now here illegally. Despite the efforts of an extraordinary coalition of businesses, unions, religious leaders, law enforcement officials and others, the GOP-led House never acted, as the most conservative lawmakers refused to heed calls from GOP leaders to back action to revive the party’s standing with Latino voters.

Obama said Boehner, R-Ohio, informed him last week that the House would not be taking up immigration legislation this year. But the speaker blamed the president for the outcome.

“I told the president what I have been telling him for months: The American people and their elected officials don’t trust him to enforce the law as written,” he said. “Until that changes, it is going to be difficult to make progress on this issue.”

Boehner called Obama’s plan to go it alone “sad and disappointing.”

• Politics & Government
• Immigration Issues
• Barack Obama

By Jeff Mason and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Monday he would take executive action to revamp the U.S. immigration system and move additional resources to protect the border after hopes of passing broad reform legislation in Congress officially died.

Republican John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives, told Obama last week that his chamber would not vote on immigration reform this year, killing chances that a wide-ranging bill passed by the Senate would become law.

The collapse of the legislative process delivers another in a series of blows to Obama’s domestic policy agenda and comes as he struggles to deal with a flood of unaccompanied minors from Central America who have entered the United States.

It also sets up a new battle with congressional Republicans, who accuse Obama of going beyond his legal authority to take executive action on issues such as gay rights and equal pay for women and men.

Obama chided Republicans for refusing to bring immigration reform to a vote and said only legislation could provide a permanent fix to the problem.

“The failure of House Republicans to pass a darn bill is bad for our security, it’s bad for our economy, and it’s bad for our future,” Obama said in the White House Rose Garden.

“America cannot wait forever for them to act. That’s why today I’m beginning a new effort to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own.”

The president directed Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to move enforcement resources from the U.S. interior to the border. A White House official said the administration would look at ways to ensure the deportation process was focused on national security priorities and that more investigative teams were available to prosecute smugglers bringing people across the border.

Obama asked his team to prepare recommendations on other actions he can take unilaterally by the end of the summer.

The president has pushed for reform that would create a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants within the United States. The Senate bill had such provisions, but Republicans in the House largely opposed them as amounting to amnesty for people who entered the country illegally.

Immigration activists, frustrated with the administration’s deportation practices, pressed Obama to make his executive actions aggressive.

“We are pleased that President Obama finally understands that Speaker John Boehner has officially allowed the extreme wing of the (Republican Party) to kill the best chance for immigration reform legislation in decades,” said PICO National Network, a religious and community organizing group, in a statement. “We hope that now that the facts are straight, President Obama will do the job Congress failed to do.”

BOEHNER SPAT

Monday was another chapter in a long test of wills between Obama and Boehner, who have battled over healthcare, deficits, government spending and gun control.

Boehner inflamed tensions last week by announcing he was considering a lawsuit charging the president for overstepping constitutional boundaries with his executive actions.

A Boehner spokesman said the two leaders spoke in person about immigration last week.

“Speaker Boehner told the president exactly what he has been telling him: the American people and their elected officials don’t trust him to enforce the law as written,” spokesman Michael Steel said. ”Until that changes, it is going to be difficult to make progress on this issue.”

The president sent a letter to Congress on Monday asking for additional resources to deal with the problem of unaccompanied minors entering the country and creating a humanitarian crisis.

That crisis and the death of reform legislation puts Obama in the awkward position of studying new ways to help the undocumented workers who have been in the country for years while getting tougher on juveniles who are entering now.

The White House had held out hope that House Republicans would move on immigration reform this summer before November congressional elections. It delayed a review over changes to U.S. deportation policy to give lawmakers space to pursue a legislative solution.

Many members of Congress have predicted that if legislation is not enacted this year, new attempts would have to wait until 2017 after a new president takes office.

(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan, Mark Felsenthal, and Annika McGinnis; Editing by Tom Brown, Bernard Orr)

• Politics & Government
• Government
• President Barack Obama
• John Boehner
• immigration reform

WASHINGTON (AP) — Conceding defeat on a top domestic priority, President Barack Obama blamed a Republican “year of obstruction” for the demise of sweeping immigration legislation on Monday and said he would take new steps without Congress to fix as much of the system as he can on his own.

“The only thing I can’t do is stand by and do nothing,” the president said. But he gave few hints about what steps he might take by executive action.

Even as he blamed House Republicans for frustrating him on immigration, Obama asked Congress for more money and additional authority to deal with the unexpected crisis of a surge of unaccompanied Central American youths arriving by the thousands at the Mexico-US border. Obama wants flexibility to speed the youths’ deportations and $2 billion in new money to hire more immigration judges and open more detention facilities, requests that got a cool reception from congressional Republicans and angered advocates.

The twin announcements came as the administration confronted the tricky politics of immigration in an election year with Democratic control of the Senate in jeopardy. The fast-developing humanitarian disaster on the border has provoked calls for a border crackdown at the same moment that immigration advocates are demanding Obama loosen deportation rules in the face of congressional inaction.

Obama’s announcement came almost a year to the day after the Senate passed a historic immigration bill that would have spent billions to secure the border and offered a path to citizenship for many of the 11.5 million people now here illegally. Despite the efforts of an extraordinary coalition of businesses, unions, religious leaders, law enforcement officials and others, the Republican-led House never acted.

Obama wanted to make immigration overhaul the central accomplishment of his second term just as the health care law was the signature achievement of his first term.

“Our country and our economy would be stronger today if House Republicans had allowed a simple yes-or-no vote on this bill or, for that matter, any bill,” Obama said in the Rose Garden. “They’d be following the will of the majority of the American people, who support reform. And instead they’ve proven again and again that they’re unwilling to stand up to the tea party in order to do what’s best for the country.”

Obama said that House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, informed him last week that the House would not be taking up immigration legislation this year.

A growing number of advocates and congressional Democrats already have declared immigration dead, the victim, in part, of internal Republican politics, with the most conservative lawmakers resisting the calls of party leaders to back action and revive the party’s standing with Latino voters. The Central American migrant surge, along with the surprise defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor at the hands of an upstart candidate from the right who accused him of backing “amnesty,” helped kill whatever chances remain.

Boehner blamed Obama for the outcome.

“I told the president what I have been telling him for months: the American people and their elected officials don’t trust him to enforce the law as written. Until that changes, it is going to be difficult to make progress on this issue,” he said. Boehner called Obama’s plan to go it alone “sad and disappointing.”

Obama directed Homeland Security Department Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to present him by the end of the summer with steps he can take without congressional approval.

For now the White House said he’d refocus resources from the interior of the country to the border, a move that would effectively further reduce the number of deportations in the country’s interior by stressing enforcement action on individuals who are either recent unlawful border crossers or who present a national security threat, public safety, or border security threat.

Johnson made his third visit Monday in the last six weeks to the Border Patrol’s McCallen station in southernmost Texas, touring the location with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. He said 150 more agents are being sent to the region to help deal with the surge.

Johnson has been weighing various additional steps to refocus deportation priorities on people with more serious criminal records, something the administration has already tried to do with mixed results. But advocates are pushing Obama for much more sweeping changes that would shield millions of immigrants now here illegally from deportation by expanding a two-year-old program that granted work permits to certain immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children.

.

• Politics & Government
• Immigration Issues
• Barack Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) — Conceding defeat on a top domestic priority, President Barack Obama blamed a Republican “year of obstruction” for the demise of sweeping immigration legislation on Monday and said he would take new steps without Congress to fix as much of the system as he can on his own.

“The only thing I can’t do is stand by and do nothing,” the president said. But he gave few hints about what steps he might take by executive action.

Even as he blamed House Republicans for frustrating him on immigration, Obama asked Congress for more money and additional authority to deal with the unexpected crisis of a surge of unaccompanied Central American youths arriving by the thousands at the Mexico-US border. Obama wants flexibility to speed the youths’ deportations and $2 billion in new money to hire more immigration judges and open more detention facilities, requests that got a cool reception from congressional Republicans and angered advocates.

The twin announcements came as the administration confronted the tricky politics of immigration in an election year with Democratic control of the Senate in jeopardy. The fast-developing humanitarian disaster on the border has provoked calls for a border crackdown at the same moment that immigration advocates are demanding Obama loosen deportation rules in the face of congressional inaction.

Obama’s announcement came almost a year to the day after the Senate passed a historic immigration bill that would have spent billions to secure the border and offered a path to citizenship for many of the 11.5 million people now here illegally. Despite the efforts of an extraordinary coalition of businesses, unions, religious leaders, law enforcement officials and others, the Republican-led House never acted.

Obama wanted to make immigration overhaul the central accomplishment of his second term just as the health care law was the signature achievement of his first term.

“Our country and our economy would be stronger today if House Republicans had allowed a simple yes-or-no vote on this bill or, for that matter, any bill,” Obama said in the Rose Garden. “They’d be following the will of the majority of the American people, who support reform. And instead they’ve proven again and again that they’re unwilling to stand up to the tea party in order to do what’s best for the country.”

Obama said that House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, informed him last week that the House would not be taking up immigration legislation this year.

A growing number of advocates and congressional Democrats already have declared immigration dead, the victim, in part, of internal Republican politics, with the most conservative lawmakers resisting the calls of party leaders to back action and revive the party’s standing with Latino voters. The Central American migrant surge, along with the surprise defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor at the hands of an upstart candidate from the right who accused him of backing “amnesty,” helped kill whatever chances remain.

Boehner blamed Obama for the outcome.

“I told the president what I have been telling him for months: the American people and their elected officials don’t trust him to enforce the law as written. Until that changes, it is going to be difficult to make progress on this issue,” he said. Boehner called Obama’s plan to go it alone “sad and disappointing.”

Obama directed Homeland Security Department Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to present him by the end of the summer with steps he can take without congressional approval.

For now the White House said he’d refocus resources from the interior of the country to the border, a move that would effectively further reduce the number of deportations in the country’s interior by stressing enforcement action on individuals who are either recent unlawful border crossers or who present a national security threat, public safety, or border security threat.

Johnson made his third visit Monday in the last six weeks to the Border Patrol’s McCallen station in southernmost Texas, touring the location with Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. He said 150 more agents are being sent to the region to help deal with the surge.

Johnson has been weighing various additional steps to refocus deportation priorities on people with more serious criminal records, something the administration has already tried to do with mixed results. But advocates are pushing Obama for much more sweeping changes that would shield millions of immigrants now here illegally from deportation by expanding a two-year-old program that granted work permits to certain immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children.

.

• Politics & Government
• Immigration Issues
• Barack Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the face of an unyielding Congress, President Barack Obama will act on his own to make changes in immigration policy, a White House official said Monday. Obama is expected to refocus immigration enforcement away from the country’s interior and onto a Mexican border that has seen a tide of children crossing illegally from Central America, the official said.

This official said that Obama decided to bypass Congress after House speaker John Boehner informed him last week that the House would not vote on an immigration overhaul this year. Obama was expected to address the status of immigration policy later Monday.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plans ahead of Obama’s remarks.

Obama’s decision effectively declares that a broad based change in immigration policy is dead for the year, and perhaps for the remainder of his administration. Changing immigration laws and providing a path to citizenship for about 11 million immigrants in the country illegally has been one Obama’s top priorities as he sought to conclude his presidency with major second-term victory.

Obama’s ability to undertake changes on his own is limited.

He is instructing Homeland Security Department Secretary Jeh Jphnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to present him with executive actions he can take without congressional approval by the end of the summer.

Still, in responding to the influx of unaccompanied children, Obama plans to concentrate immigration resources on the border areas. The move will effectively further reduce the number of deportations in the country’s interior by stressing enforcement action on individuals who are either recent unlawful border crossers or who present a national security, public safety, or border security threat.

The decision coincides with a White House request to Congress for new powers to deport newly arrived immigrant children traveling without their parents.

As such, Obama’s actions represent a delicate balancing act between responding to what the White House has called a “humanitarian crisis” over unaccompanied children and a demand from immigration activists to reduce the administration’s record number of deportations.

Deportations have spiked under the Obama administration to a total of around 2 million so far — the same number removed during the full eight years of the Bush administration. At the same time, formal removals from the interior have decreased each year of the Obama administration, while the number of deportations from the border has increased.

The Obama administration also has taken steps already to focus deportations on people with more serious criminal records or those who pose a threat. But this so-called “prosecutorial discretion,” while harshly criticized by Republicans, never succeeded in calming concerns in immigrant communities about how deportations are conducted.

Obama on Monday was dropping by a meeting at the White House among immigration overhaul advocates and Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. Many of those advocates reacted harshly to Obama’s plan Monday to seek emergency money from Congress that would, among other things, help conduct “an aggressive deterrence strategy focused on the removal and repatriation of recent border crossers.”

Obama, in a letter to congressional leaders, also is asking for increased penalties for persons who smuggle immigrants who are vulnerable, such as children. The request is part of a broader administration response to what the White House has called a “humanitarian crisis” on the border.

“This includes fulfilling our legal and moral obligation to make sure we appropriately care for unaccompanied children who are apprehended, while taking aggressive steps to surge resources to our Southwest border to deter both adults and children from this dangerous journey, increase capacity for enforcement and removal proceedings, and quickly return unlawful migrants to their home countries,” Obama wrote.

The decision to act alone on targeted immigration changes while seeking congressional approval for greater powers to deport recent border crossers, including children, creates an unusual dynamic whereby Obama acts alone on one hand and asks Congress for tougher measures on the other.

The Border Patrol in South Texas has been overwhelmed for several months by an influx of unaccompanied children and parents traveling with young children from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Unlike Mexican immigrants arrested after entering the U.S. illegally, those from Central America cannot be as easily returned to their countries. Obama is seeking authority to act more quickly

The Border Patrol has apprehended more than 52,000 child immigrants traveling on their own since October.

Immigrant advocacy groups, already frustrated by Obama’s lack of executive action to ease record levels of deportations, immediately pounced on the administration’s decision on child border crossers.

“President Obama is asking Congress to change the law to enable the government to inflict expedited removal on unaccompanied children. That is simply unconscionable,” said Leslie A. Holman, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “No matter what you call it, rapid deportations without any meaningful hearing for children who are rightly afraid of the violence and turmoil from which they fled is wrong, and contradicts the fundamental values of this nation.”

Under current law, children arriving at the border from Central America have a right to an immigration hearing before a judge, but under Obama’s proposed changes, which must be approved by Congress, that would no longer be automatic and instead the kids would have to make their case to a Border Patrol agent, advocates said.

• Politics & Government
• Immigration Issues
• Barack Obama
• White House
• immigration policy
• unaccompanied children

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the face of an unyielding Congress, President Barack Obama will act on his own to make changes in immigration policy, a White House official said Monday. Obama is expected to refocus immigration enforcement away from the country’s interior and onto a Mexican border that has seen a tide of children crossing illegally from Central America, the official said.

This official said that Obama decided to bypass Congress after House speaker John Boehner informed him last week that the House would not vote on an immigration overhaul this year. Obama was expected to address the status of immigration policy later Monday.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plans ahead of Obama’s remarks.

Obama’s decision effectively declares that a broad based change in immigration policy is dead for the year, and perhaps for the remainder of his administration. Changing immigration laws and providing a path to citizenship for about 11 million immigrants in the country illegally has been one Obama’s top priorities as he sought to conclude his presidency with major second-term victory.

Obama’s ability to undertake changes on his own is limited.

He is instructing Homeland Security Department Secretary Jeh Jphnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to present him with executive actions he can take without congressional approval by the end of the summer.

Still, in responding to the influx of unaccompanied children, Obama plans to concentrate immigration resources on the border areas. The move will effectively further reduce the number of deportations in the country’s interior by stressing enforcement action on individuals who are either recent unlawful border crossers or who present a national security, public safety, or border security threat.

The decision coincides with a White House request to Congress for new powers to deport newly arrived immigrant children traveling without their parents.

As such, Obama’s actions represent a delicate balancing act between responding to what the White House has called a “humanitarian crisis” over unaccompanied children and a demand from immigration activists to reduce the administration’s record number of deportations.

Deportations have spiked under the Obama administration to a total of around 2 million so far — the same number removed during the full eight years of the Bush administration. At the same time, formal removals from the interior have decreased each year of the Obama administration, while the number of deportations from the border has increased.

The Obama administration also has taken steps already to focus deportations on people with more serious criminal records or those who pose a threat. But this so-called “prosecutorial discretion,” while harshly criticized by Republicans, never succeeded in calming concerns in immigrant communities about how deportations are conducted.

Obama on Monday was dropping by a meeting at the White House among immigration overhaul advocates and Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. Many of those advocates reacted harshly to Obama’s plan Monday to seek emergency money from Congress that would, among other things, help conduct “an aggressive deterrence strategy focused on the removal and repatriation of recent border crossers.”

Obama, in a letter to congressional leaders, also is asking for increased penalties for persons who smuggle immigrants who are vulnerable, such as children. The request is part of a broader administration response to what the White House has called a “humanitarian crisis” on the border.

“This includes fulfilling our legal and moral obligation to make sure we appropriately care for unaccompanied children who are apprehended, while taking aggressive steps to surge resources to our Southwest border to deter both adults and children from this dangerous journey, increase capacity for enforcement and removal proceedings, and quickly return unlawful migrants to their home countries,” Obama wrote.

The decision to act alone on targeted immigration changes while seeking congressional approval for greater powers to deport recent border crossers, including children, creates an unusual dynamic whereby Obama acts alone on one hand and asks Congress for tougher measures on the other.

The Border Patrol in South Texas has been overwhelmed for several months by an influx of unaccompanied children and parents traveling with young children from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Unlike Mexican immigrants arrested after entering the U.S. illegally, those from Central America cannot be as easily returned to their countries. Obama is seeking authority to act more quickly

The Border Patrol has apprehended more than 52,000 child immigrants traveling on their own since October.

Immigrant advocacy groups, already frustrated by Obama’s lack of executive action to ease record levels of deportations, immediately pounced on the administration’s decision on child border crossers.

“President Obama is asking Congress to change the law to enable the government to inflict expedited removal on unaccompanied children. That is simply unconscionable,” said Leslie A. Holman, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “No matter what you call it, rapid deportations without any meaningful hearing for children who are rightly afraid of the violence and turmoil from which they fled is wrong, and contradicts the fundamental values of this nation.”

Under current law, children arriving at the border from Central America have a right to an immigration hearing before a judge, but under Obama’s proposed changes, which must be approved by Congress, that would no longer be automatic and instead the kids would have to make their case to a Border Patrol agent, advocates said.

• Politics & Government
• Immigration Issues
• Barack Obama
• White House
• immigration policy
• unaccompanied children

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will act on his own to make changes in immigration policy as Congress is not expected to move on the issue this year, a White House official said Monday. Obama is expected to refocus immigration enforcement away from the country’s interior and onto a Mexican border that has seen a tide of children crossing illegally from Central America, the official said.

This official said Obama decided to bypass Congress after House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner informed him last week that the chamber would not vote on an immigration overhaul this year.

Obama was expected to address the status of immigration policy later Monday.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plans ahead of Obama’s remarks.

Obama’s decision effectively declares that a broad-based change in immigration policy is dead for the year, and perhaps for the remainder of his administration. Changing immigration laws and providing a path to citizenship for about 11 million immigrants in the country illegally has been one Obama’s top priorities as he sought to conclude his presidency with major second-term victory.

Obama’s ability to undertake changes on his own is limited.

He is instructing Homeland Security Department Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to present him with executive actions he can take without congressional approval by the end of the summer.

The Border Patrol in south Texas has been overwhelmed for several months by an influx of unaccompanied children and parents traveling with young children from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Unlike Mexican immigrants arrested after entering the U.S. illegally, those from Central America cannot be as easily returned to their countries. Obama is seeking authority to act more quickly.

The Border Patrol has apprehended more than 52,000 child immigrants traveling on their own since October.

In responding to the influx of unaccompanied children, Obama plans to concentrate immigration resources on the border areas. The move will effectively further reduce the number of deportations in the country’s interior by stressing enforcement action on individuals who are either recent unlawful border crossers or who present a national security, public safety, or border security threat.

The decision coincides with a White House request to Congress for new powers to deport newly arrived immigrant children traveling without their parents.

Immigrant advocacy groups immediately criticized the administration’s decision on child border crossers.

“President Obama is asking Congress to change the law to enable the government to inflict expedited removal on unaccompanied children. That is simply unconscionable,” said Leslie A. Holman, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “No matter what you call it, rapid deportations without any meaningful hearing for children who are rightly afraid of the violence and turmoil from which they fled is wrong, and contradicts the fundamental values of this nation.”

Under current law, children arriving at the border from Central America have a right to an immigration hearing before a judge, but under Obama’s proposed changes, which must be approved by Congress, that would no longer be automatic and instead the kids would have to make their case to a Border Patrol agent, advocates said.

Obama’s actions represent a delicate balancing act between responding to what the White House has called a “humanitarian crisis” over unaccompanied children and a demand from immigration activists to reduce the administration’s record number of deportations.

Deportations have spiked under the Obama administration to a total of around 2 million so far — the same number removed during the full eight years of the George W. Bush administration. At the same time, formal removals from the interior have decreased each year of the Obama administration, while the number of deportations from the border has increased.

The Obama administration also has taken steps already to focus deportations on people with more serious criminal records or those who pose a threat. But this approach, while harshly criticized by Republicans, never succeeded in calming concerns in immigrant communities about how deportations are conducted.

Obama on Monday was dropping by a meeting at the White House among immigration overhaul advocates and Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. Many of those advocates reacted harshly to Obama’s plan Monday to seek emergency money from Congress that would, among other things, help conduct “an aggressive deterrence strategy focused on the removal and repatriation of recent border crossers.”

Obama, in a letter to congressional leaders, also is asking for increased penalties for persons who smuggle immigrants who are vulnerable, such as children.

• Politics & Government
• Immigration Issues
• Barack Obama
• White House
• immigration policy

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will act on his own to make changes in immigration policy as Congress is not expected to move on the issue this year, a White House official said Monday. Obama is expected to refocus immigration enforcement away from the country’s interior and onto a Mexican border that has seen a tide of children crossing illegally from Central America, the official said.

This official said Obama decided to bypass Congress after House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner informed him last week that the chamber would not vote on an immigration overhaul this year.

Obama was expected to address the status of immigration policy later Monday.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plans ahead of Obama’s remarks.

Obama’s decision effectively declares that a broad-based change in immigration policy is dead for the year, and perhaps for the remainder of his administration. Changing immigration laws and providing a path to citizenship for about 11 million immigrants in the country illegally has been one Obama’s top priorities as he sought to conclude his presidency with major second-term victory.

Obama’s ability to undertake changes on his own is limited.

He is instructing Homeland Security Department Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to present him with executive actions he can take without congressional approval by the end of the summer.

The Border Patrol in south Texas has been overwhelmed for several months by an influx of unaccompanied children and parents traveling with young children from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Unlike Mexican immigrants arrested after entering the U.S. illegally, those from Central America cannot be as easily returned to their countries. Obama is seeking authority to act more quickly.

The Border Patrol has apprehended more than 52,000 child immigrants traveling on their own since October.

In responding to the influx of unaccompanied children, Obama plans to concentrate immigration resources on the border areas. The move will effectively further reduce the number of deportations in the country’s interior by stressing enforcement action on individuals who are either recent unlawful border crossers or who present a national security, public safety, or border security threat.

The decision coincides with a White House request to Congress for new powers to deport newly arrived immigrant children traveling without their parents.

Immigrant advocacy groups immediately criticized the administration’s decision on child border crossers.

“President Obama is asking Congress to change the law to enable the government to inflict expedited removal on unaccompanied children. That is simply unconscionable,” said Leslie A. Holman, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “No matter what you call it, rapid deportations without any meaningful hearing for children who are rightly afraid of the violence and turmoil from which they fled is wrong, and contradicts the fundamental values of this nation.”

Under current law, children arriving at the border from Central America have a right to an immigration hearing before a judge, but under Obama’s proposed changes, which must be approved by Congress, that would no longer be automatic and instead the kids would have to make their case to a Border Patrol agent, advocates said.

Obama’s actions represent a delicate balancing act between responding to what the White House has called a “humanitarian crisis” over unaccompanied children and a demand from immigration activists to reduce the administration’s record number of deportations.

Deportations have spiked under the Obama administration to a total of around 2 million so far — the same number removed during the full eight years of the George W. Bush administration. At the same time, formal removals from the interior have decreased each year of the Obama administration, while the number of deportations from the border has increased.

The Obama administration also has taken steps already to focus deportations on people with more serious criminal records or those who pose a threat. But this approach, while harshly criticized by Republicans, never succeeded in calming concerns in immigrant communities about how deportations are conducted.

Obama on Monday was dropping by a meeting at the White House among immigration overhaul advocates and Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. Many of those advocates reacted harshly to Obama’s plan Monday to seek emergency money from Congress that would, among other things, help conduct “an aggressive deterrence strategy focused on the removal and repatriation of recent border crossers.”

Obama, in a letter to congressional leaders, also is asking for increased penalties for persons who smuggle immigrants who are vulnerable, such as children.

• Politics & Government
• Immigration Issues
• Barack Obama
• White House
• immigration policy