Obama Feels Border Heat in Texas

At the Los Angeles Times, "Obama defends immigration policy, meets with Texas governor":

President Obama faced sharp criticism for his immigration policies here Wednesday even as the White House stepped up efforts to cope with the tens of thousands of children and teens from Central America who have poured into Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.

Obama said he was “intimately aware" of the problems on the Southwest border, telling a news conference that his administration had assigned more Border Patrol agents and deployed more surveillance than ever before to stop illegal immigration, and that it deports almost 400,000 people each year.

Pressed to explain why he isn’t visiting Border Patrol stations or detention facilities during his two-day visit to Texas, he said that Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson had visited the border five times recently “at my direction” and “then comes back to me and reports extensively everything that is taking place.”

“So there’s nothing that is taking place down there that I am not intimately aware of and briefed on,” Obama said. “This isn’t theater,” he added.

“This is a problem. I’m not interested in photo ops. I’m interested in solving the problem.”