Officials Refuse To Budge On Deportation Of Students, Families:

elise@huffingtonpost.com

477 Officials Refuse To Budge On Deportation Of Students, Families:

First Posted: 04/ 1/11 03:19 PM ET

Updated: 04/ 1/11 03:56 PM ET

WASHINGTON -- Despite appeals from immigration reform advocates and some Congressional Democrats, the Obama administration will not block deportations of young people who grew up in the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Friday.

After the Senate voted down the DREAM Act, a bill that would allow legal status for some undocumented young people, immigrant rights groups have pushed for the Obama administration to use its executive authority to stop deporting those who would have benefited from the law.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and immigration reform groups announced yesterday a plan for a nationwide campaign to end deportation of DREAMers, as they have been coined, and of parents or spouses of American citizens. Current immigration law offers few options to those who want to stay in the United States to be with their families or because they have lived here since childhood. To receive legal status, those who entered the country illegally must return to their native country for 10 years to wait for a visa -- sometimes even longer -- separating them from family.

At an event sponsored by progressive think tank NDN, Napolitano said she was sympathetic to students who would have been eligible for the DREAM Act, but could not exempt them from deportation.

"I am not going to stand here and say that there are whole categories that we will, by executive fiat, exempt from the current immigration system, as sympathetic as we feel towards them," she said. "But I will say that group...are not the priority."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton echoed her statements, saying the administration cannot block deportations for certain groups. Still, with more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, Morton admitted his agency uses discretion "every day" to select how to police immigration. ICE can deport about 400,000 people per year with its current resources, Morton said.

"There are a lot of efforts underway to have good, sensible government in the absence of immigration reform, while stating at the same time that it is necessary," Morton said. "Everyone recognizes that we need a different system than we have now."

www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/01/obama-administration