Deportation of illegal immigrants increases under Obama administration. But 'as long as they keep their heads down, they're in the clear.'
From The Washington Post:
In a bid to remake the enforcement of federal immigration laws, the Obama administration is deporting record numbers of illegal immigrants and auditing hundreds of businesses that blithely hire undocumented workers.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency expects to deport about 400,000 people this fiscal year, nearly 10 percent above the Bush administration's 2008 total and 25 percent more than were deported in 2007. The pace of company audits has roughly quadrupled since President George W. Bush's final year in office.
Obama is drawing flak from those who contend the administration is weak on border security and from those who are disappointed he has not done more to fulfill his campaign promise to help the country's estimated 11 million illegal residents. Trying to thread a needle, the president contends enforcement -- including the deployment of fresh troops to the Mexico border -- is a necessary but insufficient solution.
While the administration focuses on some illegal immigrants with criminal records, others are allowed to remain free, creating a "sense of impunity. As long as they keep their heads down, they're in the clear. That's no way of enforcing immigration law," said Mark Krikorian, a supporter of stricter policies with the Center for Immigration Studies.
In a bid to remake the enforcement of federal immigration laws, the Obama administration is deporting record numbers of illegal immigrants and auditing hundreds of businesses that blithely hire undocumented workers.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency expects to deport about 400,000 people this fiscal year, nearly 10 percent above the Bush administration's 2008 total and 25 percent more than were deported in 2007. The pace of company audits has roughly quadrupled since President George W. Bush's final year in office.
Obama is drawing flak from those who contend the administration is weak on border security and from those who are disappointed he has not done more to fulfill his campaign promise to help the country's estimated 11 million illegal residents. Trying to thread a needle, the president contends enforcement -- including the deployment of fresh troops to the Mexico border -- is a necessary but insufficient solution.
While the administration focuses on some illegal immigrants with criminal records, others are allowed to remain free, creating a "sense of impunity. As long as they keep their heads down, they're in the clear. That's no way of enforcing immigration law," said Mark Krikorian, a supporter of stricter policies with the Center for Immigration Studies.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 7:17 AM
1 Comments:
Agreed our immigratiom system is broken and must be fixed. Secure the borders, but deal with the ones whom we have "kept OUR heads down" and allowed to them to come in the back door to do the jobs no one else will do. The Dream Act, as a part of the broader reform bill, is a must to help undocumented high school graduates, with no criminal records, become contributing members of this, the only country they know. (Most came into this country as babies.) As a path to citizenship, they will be given conditional status to serve two years in our military or complete an associates degree in college. It is a Win Win opportunity for us and them.
...And, in the meantime, could we refer to this population as "undocumented" and not "illegal"? Illegal, as an noun, is a dehumanizing slur aimed ,for the most part, at good hard-working people. They want the opportunity to make it right. (5000 visas are granted yearly for 500,000 low-skilled jobs. This is why they are here.)
Give them an avenue to become US citizens so they can hold their heads high. "Keeping heads down" is reminicent of a bygone era for which we now apologize.
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