Thread: U.S. plans raids to deport families who surged across border

Thu Dec 24, 2015 2:57am GMT

U.S. plans raids to deport families who surged across border - Washington Post

WASHINGTON

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has begun preparing for a series of raids that would target for deportation hundreds of families who have flocked to the United States since the start of last year, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Citing people familiar with the operation, the Post said the nationwide campaign to deport the illegal immigrants by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could start as soon as early January.

It would be the first large-scale effort to deport families who have fled violence in Central America, the newspaper said.

More than 100,000 families with both adults and children have made the journey across the southwest border since last year, the Post reported.

The operation would target only adults and children who have already been ordered removed from the United States by an immigration judge, the newspaper said.

The Post said the operation has not been given final approval by DHS. The number of people targeted is expected to be in the hundreds and possibly greater, the newspaper said.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment.

Experts say that the violence that was a key factor in driving people to flee Central America last year has surged again, The Post reported.

The pressure for deportations has mounted because of a recent court decision that ordered DHS to begin releasing families housed in detention centres, according to the Post.

Immigration advocates expressed concern about the plan.

"It would be an outrage if the administration subjected Central American families to even more aggressive enforcement tactics," Gregory Chen, director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the Post.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa...0U706H20151224

U.S. plans raids to deport families who surged across border

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A one-year-old from El Salvador clings to his mother after she turned themselves in to Border Patrol agents on Dec. 7, 2015 near Rio Grande City, Texas. They had just illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)
By Jerry Markon and David Nakamura December 23 at 9:06 PM
The Department of Homeland Security has begun preparing for a series of raids that would target for deportation hundreds of families who have flocked to the United States since the start of last year, according to people familiar with the operation.
The nationwide campaign, to be carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as soon as early January, would be the first large-scale effort to deport families who have fled violence in Central America, those familiar with the plan said. More than 100,000 families with both adults and children have made the journey across the southwest border since last year, though this migration has largely been overshadowed by a related surge of unaccompanied minors.
The ICE operation would target only adults and children who have already been ordered removed from the United States by an immigration judge, according to officials familiar with the undertaking, who spoke on condition of anonymity because planning is ongoing and the operation has not been given final approval by DHS. The adults and children would be detained wherever they can be found and immediately deported. The number targeted is expected to be in the hundreds and possibly greater.
The proposed deportations have been controversial inside the Obama administration, which has been discussing them for several months. DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson has been pushing for the moves, according to those with knowledge of the debate, in part because of a new spike in the number of illegal immigrants in recent months. Experts say that the violence that was a key factor in driving people to flee Central America last year has surged again, with the homicide rate in El Salvador reaching its highest level in a generation. A drought in the region has also prompted departures.
The pressure for deportations has also mounted because of a recent court decision that ordered DHS to begin releasing families housed in detention centers.
Although Johnson has signaled publicly for months that Central American families not granted asylum would face deportation, the plan is likely to trigger renewed backlash from Latino groups and immigrant advocates, who have long accused the administration of overly harsh detention policies even as Republicans deride President Obama as soft on border security.
Advocates have not been briefed on the plans and on Wednesday expressed concern. They cited what they called flaws and abuses in the government’s treatment and legal processing of the families, many of whom are fleeing danger or persecution in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
“It would be an outrage if the administration subjected Central American families to even more aggressive enforcement tactics,” said Gregory Chen, director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “This administration has never acknowledged the truth: that these families are refugees seeking asylum who should be given humanitarian protection rather than being detained or rounded up. When other countries are welcoming far more refugees, the U.S. should be ashamed for using jails and even contemplating large-scale deportation tactics.”
Groups that have called for stricter immigration limits said the raids are long overdue and remained skeptical about whether the scale would be large enough to deter future illegal immigration from Central America.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “What share is this going to be?. . . It’s a drop in the bucket compared to the number they’ve admitted into the country. If you have photogenic raids on a few dozen illegal families and that’s the end of it, it’s just for show. It’s just a [public relations] thing, enforcement theater.”
Marsha Catron, a DHS spokeswoman, would not comment on any possible ICE operations but pointed out that Johnson “has consistently said our border is not open to illegal immigration, and if individuals come here illegally, do not qualify for asylum or other relief, and have final orders of removal, they will be sent back consistent with our laws and our values.”
The raids could become a flash point on the 2016 campaign trail, where GOP presidential contenders, including frontrunner Donald Trump, have made calls for stricter border control a central issue. Trump’s rise has come as he has promised to deport all undocumented immigrants and bar entry to the United States for Muslim refugees in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif., policy prescriptions denounced by Democratic candidates, including Hillary Clinton.
The immigration issue has often bedeviled Obama, who came into office under pressure from supporters to end the George W. Bush administration’s post-Sept, 11, 2001, crackdown on illegal migrants. Instead, the administration increased deportations in its early years, drawing repeated fire from Latino groups and immigration advocates. Then, in summer 2014, came the surge of children flocking across the southwest border.
While most public attention focused on minors who were crossing the border alone, the number of children who came with a family member — known as “family units’’ in DHS parlance — also spiked dramatically.
With the government overwhelmed at first, many of the families were simply released and told to appear at later immigration court dates to determine if they would be granted asylum.
Some never showed up or had their asylum claims rejected and were ordered deported by immigration judges, officials familiar with the process said. That population is among those expected to be targeted in the upcoming raids, they said.
Immigrant rights advocates and legal experts say the families and minors were in many cases not granted adequate representation and were confused by the asylum procedures in court.
DHS, meanwhile, reacted to the surge by opening family detention centers, two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania. Those centers now house more than 1,700 people, DHS officials said Wednesday. But even as DHS officials have long vowed that the migrants will be treated humanely, their advocates have said conditions are crowded and inhumane in the centers, which often house women with children.
As the administration wrestled with how to handle the families, Johnson in November 2014 issued a set of new immigration enforcement priorities. Much of the attention focused on his public statements that undocumented immigrants who had been in the country for years should be integrated into society rather than deported. And Obama, on the same day, announced an executive action intended to shield up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation.
But Obama’s action has been blocked in the courts. And Johnson has also made clear that families, children and others who had illegally crossed the border recently and did not obtain asylum status — and anyone ordered deported starting on Jan. 1, 2014 — would be subject to removal.
DHS “will also continue to expedite, to the greatest extent possible, the removal of those who are not eligible for relief under our laws,’’ Johnson said in a September statement about the family detention centers. “We take seriously our obligation to secure our borders.’’
In August, a federal judge in California ordered the administration to begin releasing in October children and family members from the detention centers. The judge said DHS had violated a 1990s consent decree that said minors taken into custody, whether accompanied by an adult or not, had to be treated humanely and allowed to quickly contest their incarcerations.
The administration has said it is complying with the ruling, but it has also filed an appeal with a federal appeals court, and officials said the decision left them feeling hamstrung. “It doesn’t allow us to hold onto people, to detain them until we can deport them,’’ said one person familiar with the internal debate.
Then, in recent months, the flow of families crossing the border suddenly shot up again. The numbers of family units apprehended rose 173 percent in October and November, compared to the same period last year, according to DHS data analyzed by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
The court decision and the sudden spike led to the decision to begin planning the upcoming raid, said officials familiar with the deliberations, who said DHS knows the deportations will be inflammatory but feels like it must enforce the law.
Jerry Markon covers the Department of Homeland Security for the Post’s National Desk. He also serves as lead Web and newspaper writer for major breaking national news.

David Nakamura covers the White House. He has previously covered sports, education and city government and reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Japan.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...aae_story.html

The main problem I see with this is that the Obama administration will use this to create abuses on purpose in an effort to generate propaganda against deportation.

He is going to attempt to take control of the situation by stealing Trump's thunder and then pointing to abuses of illegal immigrants in the resulting raids that dragged women and children out into the streets crying at night in front of cameras.

W

US immigration officials are reportedly planning raids on some Central American immigrants who flocked across the border

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has begun preparing for a series of raids that would target for deportation hundreds of families who have flocked to the United States since the start of last year, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Citing people familiar with the operation, the Post said the nationwide campaign to deport the illegal immigrants by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could start as soon as early January.

It would be the first large-scale effort to deport families who have fled violence in Central America, the newspaper said.

More than 100,000 families with both adults and children have made the journey across the southwest border since last year, the Post reported.

The operation would target only adults and children who have already been ordered removed from the United States by an immigration judge, the newspaper said.

The Post said the operation has not been given final approval by DHS. The number of people targeted is expected to be in the hundreds and possibly greater, the newspaper said.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment.

Experts say that the violence that was a key factor in driving people to flee Central America last year has surged again, The Post reported.

The pressure for deportations has mounted because of a recent court decision that ordered DHS to begin releasing families housed in detention centers, according to the Post.

Immigration advocates expressed concern about the plan.

"It would be an outrage if the administration subjected Central American families to even more aggressive enforcement tactics," Gregory Chen, director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the Post.

US immigration officials planning raids on Central American immigrants - Business Insider

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

The main problem I see with this is that the Obama administration will use this to create abuses on purpose in an effort to generate propaganda against deportation.

He is going to attempt to take control of the situation by stealing Trump's thunder and then pointing to abuses of illegal immigrants in the resulting raids that dragged women and children out into the streets crying at night in front of cameras.

W

It won't matter if he tries that stunt. We don't care how they drag them out of here. Do you know how many videos and films and YouTubes Americans have watched in the past 10 years of Americans being dragged out of their cars, off their bikes, out of their homes, shopping centers, and off the streets by police officers? Americans are numb to this at this point. What's supposed to be fair and good to US is just as good and fair to them.

Support the Raids! Support them Strong!

Then ask, why are they only doing this to Central Americans? Why aren't they raiding to find all illegal aliens from everywhere? We want them all gone.

Apparently a lot of Central Americans and Caribbeans have been fleeing unemployment in recent years. Just one more impact of the growth of Chinese exports. And we get to be the unemployment office, apparently.

Originally Posted by Judy

It won't matter if he tries that stunt. We don't care how they drag them out of here. Do you know how many videos and films and YouTubes Americans have watched in the past 10 years of Americans being dragged out of their cars, off their bikes, out of their homes, shopping centers, and off the streets by police officers? Americans are numb to this at this point. What's supposed to be fair and good to US is just as good and fair to them.

Support the Raids! Support them Strong!

Then ask, why are they only doing this to Central Americans? Why aren't they raiding to find all illegal aliens from everywhere? We want them all gone.

Let us not forget the numerous YouTube videos of Spanish speaking illegals that want US out! The new nation of Aztlan movement. La Raza & M.E.Ch.A. The Brown Berets. The Trump Pinada killers. The ingrates pulling down our flag, burning it and raising their own. Please take a few moments of your time. Those not aware of the war waged against non-spanish speaking people, you will be enlightened. I hope that some of these videos will inspire you to help ALIPAC in their (our) fight. WARNING: None of these portrayals indicate "an act of love".

Their motto: "For those of the race, everything. For those outside the race, nothing."


Illegal invasion of America: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B65pLsah3XE

Unruly students: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KAL8tny6oo

You're white, you don't belong here Brown Berets: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt3of5KMvCI

Aztlan rally: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajkAP_M4ZAM

Vulgar Mexican children: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDW1R9OmOr0

Kill Trump Pinada: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SpNhVLnuc0

Forced to say Mexican pledge of allegiance in Texas school: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYKXquc2Q7w

Invasion, burning/trashing our flag: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZn4Ed4fd-c

La RAZA/MECHA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Obbk0...0GxpUg&index=4

- Stop the invasion...by any means necessary.

DHS preparing immigration raids by, er, talking about them a month in advance

POSTED AT 10:01 AM ON DECEMBER 24, 2015 BY ED MORRISSEY

Almost by definition, a “raid” involves the element of surprise. The idea is to catch one or more people unaware in order to ensure that law enforcement can find them. That may be especially true for potential targets who are well aware of their fraught legal status — such as illegal immigrants who have remained in the US in defiance of court orders for deportation.

So … is a month’s notice about the “raids” considered a sporting chance, or what?

The Department of Homeland Security has begun preparing for a series of raids that would target for deportation hundreds of families who have flocked to the United States since the start of last year, according to people familiar with the operation.

The nationwide campaign, to be carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as soon as early January, would be the first large-scale effort to deport families who have fled violence in Central America, those familiar with the plan said. More than 100,000 families with both adults and children have made the journey across the southwest border since last year, though this migration has largely been overshadowed by a related surge of unaccompanied minors.

The ICE operation would target only adults and children who have already been ordered removed from the United States by an immigration judge, according to officials familiar with the undertaking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because planning is ongoing and the operation has not been given final approval by DHS. The adults and children would be detained wherever they can be found and immediately deported. The number targeted is expected to be in the hundreds and possibly greater.

One can debate whether or not pursuing court-ordered deportations and tougher border enforcement are good policies (answer: yes), but this kind of leak to the targets of the raids just signals them to find someplace new to hide. Besides, enforcement should be ongoing, not something occasionally considered and even more occasionally performed. The AP noted yesterday that deportations have dropped to their lowest level in nine years:

The Obama administration formally disclosed Tuesday that in the 2015 budget year, the U.S. deported the fewest immigrants since 2006.

The Homeland Security Department oversaw the deportation of about 235,413 people between October 2014 and September 2015.

Over the same period, 337,117 people were arrested trying to cross the border illegally.
DHS has previously said the drop in deportations overseen by ICE is largely due to the decline in arrests at the border. Border arrests dropped about 30 percent from 2014 to 2015. The 2015 border arrests included roughly 79,800 people traveling as families and children traveling alone, mostly from Central America.

According to the reporting from the Washington Post’s Jerry Markon and David Nakamura, the decline in deportations seems more reflective of a lack of action by DHS and the White House. It’s taken the Obama administration “several months” to finally decide to enforce the law, after a big internal debate on that question. The main reason that they finally decided to move forward on doing their jobs is because of another court action to force the emptying of detention centers … where “raids” would hardly be necessary anyway.

Needless to say, a few people are rather skeptical that these publicly scheduled raids will produce much other than “enforcement theater”:

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “What share is this going to be?. . . It’s a drop in the bucket compared to the number they’ve admitted into the country. If you have photogenic raids on a few dozen illegal families and that’s the end of it, it’s just for show. It’s just a [public relations] thing, enforcement theater.”

Whether that’s the case or DHS really wants to get serious (the Post reports that DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson wants to crack down to prevent another large-scale run on the border), the timing is odd in another sense, too. With Barack Obama nearing the end of his term in office, both Republicans and Democrats want to compete in some way for Hispanic voters. Thanks to the hardline rhetoric from the GOP presidential field on immigration, Hillary Clinton has a big opening to keep Hispanics from the Obama coalition within the Democratic Party. If DHS starts conducting raids and deportations on a massive scale just as voters start casting ballots in primaries, that may change the calculus for Hillary in the primaries, and for Democrats in the general election. That may be especially true if dramatic raids get lots of notice, and end up grabbing the wrong people. Depending on who wins the Republican nomination, they may give the GOP a second look — or simply stay home. Either could be fatal for Democratic hopes of succeeding Obama in the White House.

Update: Greg Sargent warns Democrats that this will be a “political bomb”:

In a preview of more to come, a leading immigration advocate, Frank Sharry of America’s Voice, told me that there will be intense pressure on the Democratic presidential candidates — particularly likely nominee Hillary Clinton — to denounce the new policy. Sharry pointed out that this could force Clinton to decide whether to align with immigration advocates and Latinos, as she’s been doing in hopes of winning the Latino vote by a huge margin in the general election, which would mean breaking with the Obama administration and adopting a position that Republicans will attack as weak on immigration enforcement.

“This will be a political nightmare for the Democrats,” Sharry told me. “The specter of raids picking up families and sending them back to violent countries is going to put Hillary Clinton in a difficult position. She’ll have to choose between protecting refugees from Central America, a demand of the Latino community, or standing with the law-and-order position of Obama and Republicans.”

In fact, that’s so obvious that one has to wonder why Obama waited until now to pull the trigger — and why it’s being leaked to the biggest “establishment” newspaper in the US. Why not do this in the spring, long before the primaries begin? That would have taken a lot of pressure off of Hillary. It’s almost as if someone planned this for the worst possible moment. That should give observers plenty of opportunity for chin-stroking over the holidays.

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/12/2...th-in-advance/

December 24, 2015 1:03 p.m.

The Obama Administration’s New Deportation Plan Could Be a Headache for Clinton

By Eric Levitz
Follow @ericlevitz


Central American immigrants wait to be transported after turning themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol.Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to raid the homes of hundreds of Central American families who crossed the U.S. border over the past two years amid an upsurge in regional violence, the WashingtonPost reports. The operation would target families that have already been denied asylum and issued orders to leave the country. More than 100,000 Central American families have crossed the border since January of 2014.

The move comes as drought and a record level of homicides in El Salvador have driven a new wave of migrants across the southern border. According to The Wall Street Journal, more than 12,000 people traveling in family units were apprehended at the border in October and November, up from 4,500 in the same months last year. The number of unaccompanied minors who were detained in those two months exceeded 10,000, compared with 5,000 during the same period in 2014.

A government official told the Journal that the goal of the deportation raids is “to send the message to would-be crossers that they won't be allowed to remain in the U.S.” According to the Post, the operation is controversial within the Obama administration, and is likely to prove even more divisive beyond the White House gates.

“This is the last thing we expected from the administration at this point, ” executive director of the National Immigration Law Center Marilena Hincapie told the Journal. “It is time that administration acknowledge once and for all that these mothers and children are refugees just like Syrians.”

Hincapie’s position is shared by left-wing Latino advocacy groups more broadly, which may put the Democratic Party’s 2016 front-runner between Barack and a hard place.

“This will be a political nightmare for the Democrats,” immigration advocate Frank Sharry told the the Post’s Greg Sargent. “The specter of raids picking up families and sending them back to violent countries is going to put Hillary Clinton in a difficult position. She’ll have to choose between protecting refugees from Central America, a demand of the Latino community, or standing with the law-and-order position of Obama and Republicans.”

When the migrant crisis first surfaced in 2014, Clinton initially suggested that the unaccompanied minors flocking across the border should be “sent back.” In the wake of harsh criticism from immigration advocates, Clinton clarified that she did not oppose resettling child migrants who were ruled “genuine refugees.”

Her main rival for the nomination, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, condemned the new deportation plan on Thursday.

"I am very disturbed by reports that the government may commence raids to deport families who have fled here to escape violence in Central America," Sanders said in a statement. "As we spend time with our families this holiday season, we who are parents should ask ourselves what we would do if our children faced the danger and violence these children do? How far would we go to protect them?"

Sargent notes that the new operation could undermine the sharp distinctions between the Democratic Party’s platform on immigration and that of Trump and company — distinctions that have Blue America’s operatives dreaming of a landslide victory among Latino voters in 2016.

President Obama’s legacy on immigration has been a cause of outrage on both the left and right. Immigration advocates have decried the president as “the deporter-in-chief” for the record number of deportations under his administration, while right-wing media has branded him a Constitution-defying tyrant for issuing executive orders that protect certain categories of undocumented immigrants from the threat of deportation.

On Tuesday, the Obama administration announced that deportations dropped by 25 percent in 2015, to 235,413, the lowest total since 2006.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...-families.html

Any of them that got a license will be easy to find.

http://www.alipac.us/f12/i-c-e-can-u...aliens-316141/

"Federal agents earlier this year arrested several immigrants with prior deportation orders after apparently identifying them with help from driver's license photo and vehicle information."