Could the flood of underage, would-be immigrants over the southern border be “Obama’s Katrina” as Susan Page of USA Today warned? No, it’s worse. Even the most virulent George W. Bush denigrator would not suggest that the former president actually created the hurricane. This president, by contrast, bears a heavy responsibility for creating the deluge of unaccompanied minors who have recently crashed ashore.

To say President Obama is largely responsible is not to say that he intended this result. If this episode serves to remind people about the law of unintended consequences, we’ll learn far more valuable lessons than those we drew from Hurricane Katrina.