IMMIGRATION: Debate moves to White House, Supreme Court

pe.com
BY BEN GOAD
WASHINGTON BUREAU
Published: 15 October 2011 05:25 PM

WASHINGTON — The national debate over immigration has changed venues, but the question of what to do about the millions of people in the country illegally remains as polarizing as ever.

With sweeping reform legislation stalled in the divided Congress, focus on the issue has moved in recent weeks to the other two branches of government.

The Obama administration is now defending itself against criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike for policy decisions made in lieu of congressional action. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up a pair of cases involving deportations and is likely in the coming months to weigh in on the question of whether local police have the authority to question and arrest illegal immigrants.

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While it’s difficult to judge how many Latino illegal immigrants live in Inland Southern California, a comparison of 2010 Census figures and citizen-voting-age population estimates for Riverside and San Bernardino counties suggests there are close to half a million noncitizen adults living in the two-county area.

The Obama administration, through a series of memos and other directives, has shifted its focus to apprehending and removing high-priority illegal immigrants: those that pose a danger to national security or public safety, repeat violators, new illegal border-crossers and fugitives from justice. Meanwhile, the administration has curtailed the mass arrests of undocumented immigrants following workplace raids that were commonplace under the Bush administration.

Critics on the political left complain that administration policy targeting immigrant offenders, implemented in part through a program called Secure Communities, has resulted in deportations of people convicted of traffic violations and other minor offenses or, in some cases, nothing at all.

Many Republicans counter that it unfairly lets illegal immigrants not found guilty of other crimes off the hook — and into American jobs.

Appearing last week before a congressional panel, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director John Morton testified that his agency removed roughly 397,000 undocumented immigrants in the 2011 fiscal year, far more than the number during any year of the Bush administration.

Morton said the question of who should be removed from the country boils down to which illegal immigrants to go after with a finite amount of funding and personnel.

“We could have an approach that says, it’s the first 400,000 people on the street who are here unlawfully,â€