( CNN ) -- It was barely floating , perhaps minutes from sinking , a small skiff , washed up against an unforgiving cement breakwater . The flat-bottomed boat was homemade , cobbled together with no evident craftsmanship , from scarce and salvaged materials . It was about 14 feet long and 4 feet wide , with a hand-hewn pole for a mast and fallen sails that looked like burlap . As waves and a relentless tide drove it into the concrete wall , the boat was going under , surrendering to the ocean that had brought it to Key Largo , Florida . A small crowd had gathered . Some were taking pictures . My wife and I asked what was happening . One in the group told us that some men came over from Cuba in this boat the previous night . They had given themselves to the ocean and whatever fate their desperate journey might bring them . They had traveled nearly 200 miles , day and night , through rough and open waters , sailing this pitiful craft on pitiless seas . Local security had found them , walking around , lost . They had no destination beyond America . They were picked up and turned over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection . We asked how many there were . Someone in the group told us , `` Nine men risked their lives to come to the United States on this . '' What is exceptional about this story is that it is not exceptional . Immigrants constantly risk not only their own lives , but also their children 's , for the economic opportunity we enjoy with indifference . While these men apparently were from Cuba , covered by the decades-old `` wet-foot-dry-foot '' Cuban immigration policy , a trickle of immigrants from Central America has suddenly become a flood of women and children , swamping our border security offices . Tens of thousands of Guatemalans and Ecuadorians have been drawn by the luster of an American economy we find tarnished . Unlike those nine Cuban men , however , these immigrants have an additional reason for coming : President Barack Obama invited them here . As Byron York explained in the Washington Examiner , `` President Obama 's DACA decree -- Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals , which allowed thousands of illegal immigrants to stay in this country if they came at a young age -- created , in effect , a magnet for young people to try to enter the U.S . illegally . '' This degree , announced in June 2012 , allows immigrant children to stay if they had been in the United States continuously from June 2007 to June 2012 . Some say , however , the decree has swept through Central America . According to The Washington Post , a recent leaked memo by Border Patrol agents spoke of this wave of new immigrants , saying they were motivated to come now , in this surge , because they had heard of the change in U.S. policy that would allow them to remain in America . Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals must have sounded like popular politics to this President , yet it was cruelty disguised as kindness . Our President 's incompetence has created a humanitarian crisis : He has lured an endless stream of children and mothers to risk everything to travel here . We are a country divided today . The prevailing debate is what is wrong with America and who among us should be blamed for it . Yesterday 's newcomers blame today 's arrivals . Those who have already walked through the golden door of opportunity would ungenerously close it behind them . We confront each other over what we lack , forgetting the greatness we have built together and how much better we could still be . Democrats demand too much of immigration reform . Republicans demand too little . The stalemate serves both their political ambitions . And as we watch men risking their lives on what can barely be called a boat and children desperately throwing themselves across our borders , we harbor a shame : No immigration reform will pass Congress this year . Perhaps both Democrats and Republicans should remember : Once , many of our families , in either this or a previous incarnation , came here as immigrants , seeking a better life and freedom . Imagine that you are one of the nine men on that boat . Or a muddied child in the Rio Grande . We may never be called upon to make those journeys , but what would each of us risk to live in the greatest country in human history ? Much more , it appears , than our leaders would risk so we can keep living there . Join us on Facebook.com/CNNOpinion .
Alex Castellanos says a new wave of young immigrants were practically invited by Obama . He says a recent change in U.S. policy allows them to remain in America . TL;DR The president is expected to announce his decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program Tuesday.