Deportations Under New U.S. Policy Are Inconsistent

[alp227]

Source: NY Times

A new Obama administration policy to avoid deportations of illegal immigrants who are not criminals has been applied very unevenly across the country and has led to vast confusion both in immigrant communities and among agents charged with carrying it out.

Since June, when the policy was unveiled, frustrated lawyers and advocates have seen a steady march of deportations of immigrants with no criminal record and with extensive roots in the United States, who seemed to fit the administration’s profile of those who should be allowed to remain.

But at the same time, in other cases, immigrants on the brink of expulsion saw their deportations halted at the last minute, sometimes after public protests. In some instances, immigration prosecutors acted, with no prodding from advocates, to abandon deportations of immigrants with strong ties to this country whose only violation was their illegal status.

For President Obama, the political stakes in the new policy are high. White House officials have concluded that there is no chance before next year’s presidential election to pass the immigration overhaul that Mr. Obama supports, which would include paths to legal status for illegal immigrants. But immigration authorities have sustained a fast pace of deportations, removing nearly 400,000 foreigners in each of the last three years. With Latino communities taking the brunt of those deportations, Latino voters are increasingly disappointed with Mr. Obama. White House officials hope the new policy will ease some of the pressure on Latinos, by steering enforcement toward gang members and convicts and away from students, soldiers and families of American citizens.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/us/politics/president-obamas-policy-on-deportation-is-unevenly-applied.html?pagewanted=all

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Before you being whining "broken promises!" be advised that lurching off the law-and-order rails risks losing the election, if you don't remember what happened to Michael Dukakis in 1988. Richard Nixon won in 1968 on a tough-on-crime platform in response to the post-MLK assassination violence. Then Bill Clinton defended if not saved his campaign in 1992 by allowing the execution of the mentally retarded death row inmate Ricky Ray Rector. But hey. At least this is a right-wing talking point turned limp. Next time your wingnut friends complain "Obama is allowing illegals in!" email them this story if they're open minded enough not to dismiss "that commie pinko latte liberal NY Times".

[EFerrari]

1. Shattered families

Report: Thousands of U.S.-Born Kids Languish in Foster Care as Immigrant Parents Detained, Deported

A new report looks at how thousands of U.S.-born children are being sent to foster care when their non-U.S. citizen parents are detained or deported. The Applied Research Center investigation, "Shattered Families: The Perilous Intersection of Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System," finds there are at least 5,100 children currently living in foster care, who are prevented from uniting with their detained or deported parents. If nothing changes, researchers found some 15,000 more children may end up in foster care in the next five years. We speak with Seth Freed Wessler, the principal investigator of the report.

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/10/report_thousands_of_us_born_kids

It's much worse than broken promises.