President Barack Obama is calling tens of thousands of illegal-immigrant children languishing in temporary U.S. holding pens an 'urgent humanitarian situation,' but Republicans are pointing the finger of blame squarely at the White House. Obama instituted an immigration policy that the GOP says enticed tens of thousands of Central American children to cross America's southern border illegally without any parents to guide them. More than 33,000 have been picked up in Texas alone since October. The U.S. border patrol says its forces are overwhelmed, and the courts are bracing for a flood of immigration cases from children held in temporary detention facilities designed to handle a fraction of the numbers. Sanitation problems are beginning to rear their ugly heads.
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A San Antonio Air Force base, a California Navy base, and a makeshift detention center in Nogales, Arizona have become temporary shelters for children and youths caught crossing the border without their parents
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Republicans blame the Obama administration for the problem, citing a 2012 policy that relaxed deportations
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It's 'an administration-made disaster,' says the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee
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President Obama now concedes that it's an 'urgent humanitarian situation' and is setting aside $2 million to pay lawyers for the children
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The US government expects as many as 80,000 child immigrants to illegally enter the US this year, a twelve-fold jump in just three years
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More than 33,000 have been picked up in Texas since October; the Arizona facility has ordered 2,000 mattresses to handle its overload
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'Instead of having an application of the immigration law, we are taking mothers and children and dumping them,' another claimed
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A federal judge castigated the Obama administration in December, saying it was 'completing the criminal mission' of human traffickers
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