President Barack Obama coolly taunted congressional Republicans on Wednesday for dithering on his demand for billions to handle a flood of illegal immigration children streaming across the U.S.-Mexico border. At the same time he flatly denied that his own policy decisions have led to the rapidly expanding human tragedy. Calling the deluge a 'humanitarian situation on the border,' not an emergency or crisis, he parried claims that a 2012 executive order delaying the deportation of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants – those who had arrived in the U.S. as children before the summer of 2007 – incentivized children in Central America to make dangerous journeys to and across the Rio Grande river.
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The president spoke in Dallas following a meeting with officials and church leaders about the children flooding into the U.S. from Central America
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He calmly called the deluge a 'humanitarian situation,' not a crisis
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Obama deflected calls for him to visit the U.S.-Mexico border, insisting that his new Homeland Security secretary had gone five times already
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Said his 'comprehensive' immigration reform bill could have prevented the crisis because it would have freed up resources by no longer chasing longer-term illegals
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Refused to acknowledge that tens of thousands of minors have poured into the U.S. because he relaxed deportations of young people in 2012
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Claimed Texas Gov. Rick Perry asked hm to act without Congress, then mocked House Speaker John Boehner's lawsuit aimed at stopping go-it-alone executive orders
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The president did not directly address the rapidly growing numbers of children who now make up the largest proportion of the total by far since the @placeholder government began counting it.
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Rick Perry met with @placeholder on Wednesday in Dallas and promptly issued a press release challenging him to do just that.