Thread: Lawmaker: White House bends immigration laws

Jim Kouri
Law Enforcement Examiner

April 11, 2012


President Obama made a lot of promises to a lot of people regarding Mexican illegal aliens.
Photo credit: WH Press Office


President Barack Obama's administration appointees at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services this week revealed their plans to move forward with the rulemaking process to allow illegal alien spouses and children with U.S. citizen relatives to stay in the United States while the federal government decides on their waiver request, according to the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on the Judiciary.

Ironically, two of Obama's relatives -- an aunt and an uncle who was arrested for drunk driving -- are currently in the United States illegally.

Under current U.S. immigration law, illegal aliens must leave the country before they can ask the federal government to waive the three and 10 year bars on legally coming back to the United States.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) released a statement criticizing Obama's proposed change without the approval of Congress.

“President Obama is bending long established immigration laws to grant backdoor amnesty to potentially millions of illegal immigrants. Congress has defeated amnesty attempts several times in recent years. According to a recent poll, two-thirds of Americans want to see immigration laws enforced, not ignored. Once again, President Obama is rewarding law breakers and disrespecting the rule of law,” stated Chairman Smith.

The U.S. Congress instituted the three and 10 year bars during the Clinton Administration in 1996 to provide a penalty for immigrants who had been illegally present in the U.S. for long periods of time. Although the waiver of these bars is legal under current law, it is not intended to be applied to millions of illegal immigrants, according to Rep. Smith.

Political strategist and attorney Michael Baker believes Obama and his immigration appointees are pushing their agenda "full speed ahead while members of Congress appear unwilling to try to stop his bending U.S. laws regarding illegal alien lawbreakers."

According to Baker, beginning in late April, the Homeland Security Department will suspend all non-detained dockets for illegal immigrants in four additional jurisdictions, as it previously did in Baltimore and Denver, for two weeks. These jurisdictions include Detroit, New Orleans, Orlando, and Seattle.

In May, DHS will partially suspend the non-detained docket in New York City and then in July, it will implement the same procedures in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

This means that DHS intends to solely focus on detained cases in these jurisdictions, meaning those who come to the attention of law enforcement, claims Rep. Lamar Smith.

But if the illegal or criminal immigrant bonds out of jail, they can be put on the non-detained docket and could potentially remain in the U.S. This decision is just another part of the Obama administration’s plan to grant administrative amnesty to potentially millions of illegal immigrants, Smith stated.

“The Obama administration’s decision to expand its backdoor amnesty plan to cities across the United States endangers Americans and insults law enforcement officials," noted Smith in his statement.

“The Obama administration’s refusal to enforce immigration law encourages more illegal immigration and rewards those who have broken our laws by allowing them to remain here and apply for work authorization. And the Department of Homeland Security could let some criminal illegal immigrants, such as those charged with drunk driving, stay in the U.S.," Smith said.

"Why would the Obama administration knowingly jeopardize the health and lives of Americans?" he asked.

Lawmaker: White House bends immigration laws - National Law Enforcement | Examiner.com

Lending new meaning to the term "jackpot baby."

RELATED

Allegation: ICE fast-tracks amnesty for illegal aliens to clear immigration-court backlog

dailycaller.com

With only 254 immigration judges available to hear 300,000 cases currently somewhere in the immigration judicial system, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun a review of its to determine who may be eligible for a type of ICE amnesty known as “administrative closure.”

Speaking during a March hearing before the Homeland Subcommittee in the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives, ICE Director John Morton said his agency has already reviewed the cases of 142,212 illegal aliens who are not currently in custody. ICE concluded that 13,175 of them should start the process toward administrative closure, Morton said.

Those who enter that process will have to pass a background check and clear other administrative hurdles before they have their cases put into “closure.”

Ben Winograd, a staff attorney at the left-leaning American Immigration Council, told The Daily Caller that the ICE review is little more than an effort to clear its backlog. The latest data from the Department of Justice indicates that just 254 immigration court judges have about 300,000 cases on their dockets at any given time.

“The numbers don’t add up,” Winograd said, suggesting that the problem is merely one of statistics. “The real answer is to reduce the pool of people that can be put into proceedings.”

While most immigration analysts agree that the U.S. lacks a sufficient number of immigration judges, not everyone wants to release illegal aliens through a virtual safety valve.

Jessica Vaughan, an analyst with the right-leaning Center for Immigration Studies, told theDC that ICE’s unilateral action is hijacking the judicial system’s authority.

“These folks were already in the immigration system,” Vaughan said. “They had cases in front of immigration judges. Now, ICE will step in and subvert that process and simply find them all innocent and let them free.”

Alabama Republican Rep. Robert Aderholt, who chairs the Subcommittee on Homeland Security, was equally scathing.

“Last year we provided funding for 34,000 detention beds, the highest level in history,” Aderholt said in a statement, “but despite the expansion of Secure Communities into new jurisdictions as well as a large known illegal population, ICE has failed to fill those beds.”

The review is part of ICE’s policy, as laid out in a controversial June 2011 memo from ICE director John Morton.

In an email to the subcommittee that accompanied his written testimony, Morton said the case review’s goal “has been to speed the removal of criminal aliens from the United States. Low priority cases of individuals with no criminal records and who pose no public safety concerns are being administratively closed.” The American Immigration Council provided TheDC with a copy of that email.

Last month, TheDC reported exclusively that ICE only has enough beds to hold one out of every ten suspected illegal aliens that its officers detain.

Both Winograd and Vaughan agree that some ICE immigration cases have been fast-tracked, taking less than a month. But Vaughan added that those cases are limited to suspected illegal aliens who are already in custody. ICE has just 34,000 beds at its disposal, while roughly 300,000 people have currently pending cases in immigration court.

For the rest, said Winograd, cases can take years. He said his group has seen some suspects spend as long as five years in immigration courts.

With hiring freezes at all federal agencies, Winograd said, increasing the number of judges isn’t an option.

“The hardliners on immigration want to have it both ways,” he said. Advocates of tough immigration enforcement policies, he observed, are also typically the first to demand budget cuts at all levels.

While Vaughan said hiring more judges would be a good option, there are also other ways to reduce the number of people in immigration courts. Rep. Aderholt has suggested broader use of videoconferencing to speed court appearances.

Vaughn insisted that ICE has been far too conservative in using a process called expedited removal, which allows the agency to quickly deport some suspected illegal aliens without a judicial order.

source: Immigration and Customs | Immigration Court Backlog | The Daily Caller