Thread: In the Debate Over Immigration and Deportations, the Facts M

In the Debate Over Immigration and Deportations, the Facts Matter
The White House Blog
Posted by Cecilia Muñoz
August 16, 2011 at 05:35 PM EDT

As too often happens in the debate over immigration, anger and heated rhetoric from all sides dominate while the facts tend to get lost along the way. So it’s important to set the record straight. Fixing the broken immigration system so that it meets America’s economic and security needs has been and continues to be a priority for President Obama. The President has laid out a clear, detailed blueprint for reform, but the only way to do what’s necessary is for Congress to act and pass bipartisan legislation the President can sign into law. Failing to act simply perpetuates a broken system. Unfortunately, as the President has said, he needs a dance partner across the aisle to move legislation forward, and so far the floor is empty.

While the President continues to work every day to fix what’s broken about our immigration system, he has also been clear that the executive branch has a responsibility to enforce the law, and to do it in a way which is both vigorous and smart. So while legislation is pending, this Administration has focused on improving our immigration system by making enforcement smarter and more effective. The fact is, Congressional funding for immigration enforcement and deportations has been on the rise for the past decade. For the first time ever, those resources are being used in a strategic and targeted way to ensure we’re maximizing public safety.

Under the President’s direction, the Department of Homeland Security for the first time ever has prioritized the removal of people who have been convicted of crimes in the United States. The Secure Communities Program, which relies on a federal information sharing program that utilizes FBI fingerprint checks conducted by law enforcement officials as they fight crime in their communities, is central to this strategy. It is the primary reason that the deportation statistics show a dramatic increase in the number of criminals deported from the United States. The results of this strategy are striking:

There was a greater than 70% increase in the deportation of those with criminal records from FY2008 to FY2010, and a decrease of those without criminal records.
Today more than half of all removals are people with criminal records.

And among those removed who had no criminal records, more than two thirds were either apprehended as they crossed the border, were recent arrivals, or were repeat violators of immigration law, meaning that they had previously been deported.

Those statistics matter. While we have more work to do, the statistics demonstrate that the strategy DHS put in place is working. At the same time, the Administration has also been open and receptive to feedback from communities across the country. On June 17, DHS announced important changes to the Secure Communities Program, including creating an ongoing review of the program so that DHS can assess its effectiveness, and taking care to protect witnesses or victims of crimes. Nothing can make up for the lack of comprehensive reform, but the facts show this has been a good strategy we can be proud of.

The Secure Communities Program is a powerful tool to keep the government’s immigration enforcement resources focused where they belong – on those who fit within DHS’s highest enforcement priorities, such as those who have committed crimes in the United States.

Cecilia Muñoz is White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/08/ ... cts-matter

On Immigration and Detention, the Facts Matter Indeed
huffingtonpost.com Latino Voices
Felipe Matos
Online advocate, Presente.org
Posted: 8/17/11 11:30 AM ET

n 2008, I was one of the many who hit the streets, knocked at doors and stood under the hot Florida sun to help President Obama get elected. After two and a half years, what did I get from my hard work? 1 million deportations and a total devastation of my community! President Obama is the president that has deported more people in our nation's history -- with the grand majority posing no threat to society at all.

When I turn on the TV or read the paper about Secure Communities (S-COMM), a controversial program that forces local police to share information about the immigration status of people they detain (before conviction), I cannot react any other way but to fight back. Today, Presente.org and several local organizations helped to organize a day of action against S-COMM in 6 cities across the United States (Chicago, Miami, Charlotte, Houston, Boston and Atlanta) and we delivered 35,000 signatures that were collected in just 5 days to the Obama for America's campaign offices.

In Miami, I met Reyna, the mother of four children, whose husband was deported for driving without a license in Homestead, FL. Now, she is raising her children by herself and feeling hopeless to the fact that she can also be stopped and deported because she doesn't have a license. Her tears are a reminder of the sense of betrayal that Latinos who voted for Obama have been feeling.

President Obama's deportations and program such as the controversial S-COMM have alienated the support from the Latino community. 56% of the 1.2 million Latinos that voted in 2008 for Obama in Florida (a key swing state), did so because they believed in his promise for change. June polling by impreMedia/Latino Decisions found that a majority of Latino voters (53%) said they know someone who is undocumented, while 25% said they know a person or have a family member who is facing deportation or who has been deported. President Obama has only terrorized our community and separated our families through the expansion of S-COMM and deportations. He is losing our community's support!

Cecilia Munoz, an official from the White House has said, "The President continues to work every day to fix what's broken about our immigration system..." Yet, I still remember unmistakably, the president's own words at this year's NCLR conference, telling Latino communities: "We [the administration] are working everyday to make sure we are enforcing flawed laws in the most humane and best possible way." Tell that to Reyna's children left fatherless, or to the millions of families separated by his immigration policies. The response of the crowd at the conference and our community nationwide has been clear: "Yes, you can!" He has the power to stop our suffering through the end of S-Comm and deportations, but he chooses to push us even more into the margins. The president is the only person with the power in this country to immediately stop the enforcement of flawed laws -- in fact, courageous and deliberate action in the face of injustice is the only thing that has ever given this country the real hope of change and progress.

Our families are mixed status and every year another 500,000 US citizen Latinos turn 18 in this country, becoming eligible to vote. Our commitment to continue denouncing his plot to deport our mothers, fathers and peers will not end with today's action. This is only the beginning and I hope he understands that we are jumping off his bus unless he stops putting us on Immigration Customs Enforcement's (ICE) buses.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/felipe-ma ... 29279.html

Related: http://www.alipac.us/ftopic-247329-0-da ... rasc-.html