Last year, the White House and four Cabinet departments predicted over 60,000 illegal children would come to the U.S. from Mexico. They now expect the number to more than double, reaching 127,000 immigrant children by the end of 2015.
This contradicts the White House’s earlier statement that the increase in immigrant children from 2014 to 2015 was unexpected. President Obama had called the increase an “urgent humanitarian situation” and sought nearly $4 billion to handle the expanding immigrant presence. A top aide in the Cabinet said the increase “was much larger than we anticipated.”
A 24-page administration PowerPoint for congressional appropriators dated April 22, 2014 bluntly stated that border arrivals of “unaccompanied alien children” would rise “by nearly a factor of 10” in 2014 to 60,000 and jump to 127,000 “if these growth rates continue.”
Ted Cruz, a leading Republican presidential candidate, said that it appears the administration is deceiving the public about surge of kids. Referring to the 24-page PowerPoint, he wrote that it “raises significant questions about whether the administration has been truthful with the American people and Congress about its knowledge of the scope of the UAC problem.”
The PowerPoint is frustrating many immigration watchdog groups, who protest that Congress has not been truthful about its immigration knowledge.
