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The US government began deporting a number of Central Americans in what was called “just the initial wave.” The group of 40 migrants sent to Honduras on June 14th included women, and children as young as 18 months old.

The United Nations High Commission on Refugees has said it views Central American migrants to the US as refugees. Specifically, the agency said that, “the U.S. and Mexico should recognize that this is a refugee situation, which implies that they shouldn’t be automatically sent to their home countries but rather receive international protection.”

Lawmakers in Washington DC are pointing the finger at one another and at President Obama for failing to pass what has become a popular catch phrase: comprehensive immigration reform. White middle class activists in small towns across the US are protesting the mere presence of detained Central American children in locked facilities in their municipalities, calling it a failure of President Obama.

A new poll by ABC News and the Washington Post has found that more than 50% of Americans approve of Obama’s plan to spend nearly $4 billion to address the immediate crisis. But only a third approve overall of his handling of immigration. According to ABC News, “Obama’s poor numbers are nothing new: Never has a majority approved of his handling of immigration. Still, Americans have been more likely to trust Obama or the Democrats to do a better job than the Republicans in handling immigration in four ABC/Post polls since March 2013.”

GUEST: Roberto Lovato, writer and a research fellow and scholar at UC Berkeley’s Center for Latino Policy Research