Thread: Obama to prioritize deportation of felons, recent border crossers

Obama to prioritize deportation of felons, recent border crossers

Published November 20, 2014 EFE

The executive orders on immigration President Barack Obama announced Thursday night include a directive to prioritize the deportation of felons and of people who illegally entered the United States this year, the White House said.

The Department of Homeland Security is to focus enforcement activity on national security threats, serious criminals and recent border crossers, defined as undocumented immigrants who entered the country after Jan. 1, 2014.

"The President's actions increase the chances that anyone attempting to cross the border illegally will be caught and sent back," according to a White House Fact Sheet.

Since Obama took office, in January 2009, the U.S. government has deported an average of roughly 400,000 people a year, a record level that has provoked criticism from immigrants rights advocates.

A wave of unaccompanied minors, mainly from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, poured across the U.S. southern border between March and June, spurring a crisis that forced authorities to open new detention centers.

Immigration authorities detained 68,541 minors at the border during the 2014 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, compared with 38,759 in fiscal 2013, according to figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The flow of minors abated significantly in July, partly due to steps taken by Obama and his Central American counterparts.

Those minors fit within the new priority for deportations, though the Obama administration announced last week a program to allow children in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras with relatives who are legal U.S. residents to apply for refugee status from their homelands.

The president's executive orders also contemplate a further bolstering of security along the southern border, where the deployment of security resources is already "at an all-time high," according to the Fact Sheet.

In pursuit of the goal of concentrating on felons, DHS will replace the Secure Communities program, which entails identifying undocumented migrants among prisoners in state and local jails, with a new Priority Enforcement Program.

EFE

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/new...rder-crossers/

Criminal aliens , gang members and recent arrivals are deportable.

Everyone else gets to stay???