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Advocates for Central American mothers and children being held in detention in the United States while seeking asylum had hoped that someone from the White House, or maybe the National Security Council, would show up at a Monday hearing of international human rights monitors.

Instead, the administration sent officials who implement policy, but dont set it, to answer concerns about how the Department of Homeland Security has handled the recent influx of unaccompanied minors from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Were disappointed that those making the decisions are not here, Brittney Nystrom, of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, told the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

But their disappointment in the president is even greater.

Youd think that this administration, at this point in time, would want to do the right thing in guaranteeing due process to children, said Mary Meg McCarthy of the Heartland Alliances National Immigrant Justice Center. In some ways, she said, their rights were actually better protected under George W. Bush: The head of ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] at that time, Julie Myers, really believed in access to legal counsel, so there was at least that recognition.

Now, she feels the added irritant of this false compassion, too. What you hear from the administration is, Were trying to protect children from the coyotes, the traffickers they pay to bring them here when they wouldnt be making these journeys if their lives werent in danger.

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama raised hopes high on the separate issue of immigration reform: What I can guarantee, he said, is that we will have in the first year an immigration bill that I strongly support and that Im promoting. And I want to move that forward as quickly as possible.

It isnt only that those expectations were dashed, said Abel Nuez, executive director of the Central American Resource Center in the District, but that there hasnt been much consistency from President Obama over the years.

With Bush, Nuez said, we kind of knew where he was coming from. His party hamstrung him in the end, and the immigration reform he pushed for never came close to happening then, either. But Obama says both things making promises and then pulling back from them when the political calculus changes and thats what I find most frustrating. After promising executive action on immigration by the end of this summer, he came back to the immigration community and said, Oops. Obama says he is waiting until after the upcoming election to act.

On the issue of unaccompanied minors, Obama has acknowledged the seriousness of the gang violence that children are fleeing, but he also has suggested that rumors implying that those who arrived illegally could stay for years were a major factor in the influx.

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Was Bush better on immigration? Disappointed advocates say maybe