By Alan Joel ——Bio and Archives--July 24, 2014
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"Perhaps one particular decision by the White House highlights how concerned the administration is about public reaction: As of now, not a single illegal-alien detainee seems to have been sent to Louisiana or Arkansas, the states bordering Texas that are closest to the site of the border deluge. This is no accident. Those two states have Democratic senators up for re-election who are vulnerable enough to lose, but who might still be able to prevail. The White House appears to have decided not to send any illegals there to avoid the potential for political damage."The White House is keenly aware of not "letting this crisis go to waste". They have carefully chosen not to send immigrants to states with vulnerable Democrat elections so that they will avoid arousing the Republican/elderly electorate on Election Day. On the other hand, those who are concerned about the immigrant surge are already being painted as "anti-children", "heartless", etc. Those sentiments are certain to be repeated during the election cycle. At least one group thinks that this crisis is contrived. The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO), which issued a statement in early June, essentially stating that surge of immigrants, including minors, crossing our border "is not a humanitarian crisis. It is a predictable, orchestrated and contrived assault on the compassionate side of Americans by her political leaders that knowingly puts minor illegal alien children at risk for purely political purposes." The immigration surge is less about immigration than it is about calculated deflection. If the Obama Administration can have a large part of the electorate--especially Republicans and elderly--refocus on something "big" other than the IRS scandal, VA scandal, and other government failures, then they can be out of scrutiny on those particularly damning issues for at least the time being.
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Alan Joel has been a practicing CPA in NYC for more than 40 years. He loves liberty and writes on the politics of taxes at his popular blog, AlanJoelNY.com