I’m reporting on what an uninformed governor says only because this governor wants to follow Obama to the White House. So, all readers across the US, keep track of Martin O’Malley’s positions—he is a leader in the Democrat Party for Open Borders (no borders!) and has facilitated the growth (with tax dollars) of the notorious CASA de Maryland.
Here is what he said to a Hispanic advocacy group in Washington on Thursday about the Unaccompanied Alien Children.
Maryland has received the largest number per capita of any state we are told.
From Southern Maryland Online:
WASHINGTON (Sept. 11, 2014) — Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, in his keynote address to the Hispanic National Bar Association’s annual conference Thursday morning, called on the association’s members to help in his state’s efforts to provide pro bono representation for the large numbers of unaccompanied minors who’ve crossed the U.S. border this year to escape violence in Central America.
“When unaccompanied children fleeing violence in Central America arrive at our doorstep, it is not only for their good, but for our good and the good of the nation that our children will share with them that our nation should act hospitably and revere the human dignity and the courage that those children have possessed,” he told a crowded ballroom at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington.
O’Malley, who is considering a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, came under fire earlier this year when he openly criticized President Barack Obama’s plan to deport many of the children back to the countries from which they fled.
“We are Americans, and we do not return refugee kids who find themselves on our doorstep back into war-torn or famine-racked places where they will face certain death,” O’Malley told reporters in mid-July. “I think we have to act like Americans.”
Since then, Maryland has accepted 2,804 children, according to the latest figures from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the largest number of refugees per capita of any state in the country. Each is currently living with family or friends while awaiting deportation hearings.
Nebraska pro-immigration lawyer explains why the “children” are not refugees.
Coincidentally I came across this news item at the same time as the O’Malley disingenuous comment where a pro-immigration lawyer tells the public why the children are not “refugees.” Yet anyway!
Unaccompanied minors from Central Nebraska cannot be granted refugee status because people are classified as being refugees before ever arriving in the United States, Maynes said. That is why Sudanese and Somali immigrants – who actually lived in refugee camps – are legally considered refugees.
She said the question for unaccompanied minors is whether they can be classified as seeking asylum, a designation given to immigrants after they arrive in the U.S. Although in different categories, refugees and asylees must meet at least one of the same criteria to receive those legal designations under U.S. immigration law.
Both refugees and asylees must have a “well-founded fear of persecution” because of their political opinions, religion, nationality, race or for being a member of a protected social group, Maynes said. She said some immigration lawyers are arguing that unaccompanied minors should be part of a protected social group because as children, they are vulnerable to the predations of Central American gangs.
Of course the important point is that the Open Borders advocates and lawyers are working toward turning the “children” into legitimate asylum seekers by stretching the definition of “refugee” and thereby making anyone in the world, claiming to be escaping crime, eligible for entry into America.
Go here for all of our coverage of the ‘unaccompanied minors.’