Thread: Is Obama's pledge to loosen deportation policy more than jus

Is Obama's pledge to loosen deportation policy more than just nice words?
Albor Ruiz

Sunday, August 21st 2011, 4:00 AM

Reacting to intense pressure from the Latino community and aware that President Obama will need their votes in 2012, the White House announced with great fanfare last Thursday a plan to stop the deportation of some undocumented immigrants.

"We have heard it before," was the reaction of a considerable number of immigrants and advocates who, fed up with the President's nice words and empty promises, demand concrete action.

The announcement came in a Department of Homeland Security letter to Congress, specifying the agency will suspend the deportations of low-priority cases such as children, military families, individuals brought here at a young age, same-sex couples and sole-bread winners and focus on convicted criminals and those who might be a national security or public safety threat.

DREAM Act students are expected to benefit from the policy change.

The announcement follows last Tuesday's demonstrations around the country, demanding that the controversial mass deportation program, Secure Communities, be scrapped. The program was supposed to focus on undocumented immigrants who are convicted criminals, but 79% of those it has deported were noncriminals or low-level offenders, statistics show.

"Every few weeks, President Obama suddenly discovers that he has more authority to change immigration policy," said Juan Escalante, a DREAM Act activist, of the announcement. "[But] these stop-gap measures come at the expense of a permanent solution."

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the agency will make a case-by-case review of the estimated 300,000 unauthorized immigrants who are currently facing deportation.

"They [Homeland Security] will be applying common-sense guidelines to make these decisions, like a person's ties and contributions to the community, their family relationships and military service record," White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecilia Muñoz wrote on the White House blog.

But many questions remain. One of the most obvious is how the administration will apply these priorities to immigrants still being detained for low-level offenses as a result of the infamous S-Comm program.

Presente.org, one of the leaders of last Tuesday's demonstrations, pointed out that the plan "represents a less than 3% solution to the crisis that this administration has caused in the lives of the more than 1 million immigrants [who have been] already deported, the majority of whom have committed no crime but for seeking a better life for them and their families."

Another unanswered question has to do with the 11 million undocumented who are not currently in deportation proceedings.

While many in the immigration community reacted with hope, others have an "I'll believe it when I see it" attitude. But for all of them the jury is still out on the practical impact of the policy change.

"This is an important moment, not because today's changes will necessarily mean anything, but because it shows that our organizing is effective," said Sonia Güinansaca, coordinator of the Youth Leadership Council Education Not Deportation campaign, a project focused on preventing the deportation of youth and their families. "We are tired of empty promises and, thanks to this President, we know them when we see them."

Something is certain: Immigrant groups and advocates will be watching to make sure this time, the announced changes are more than nice words and empty promises.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/201 ... z1VfxcCNRR

Another unanswered question has to do with the 11 million undocumented who are not currently in deportation proceedings

That is easy. Just hurry it along and deport them all now.
Skip the courts. These people did not use the laws as they entered into this country ILLEGALLY. So why SHOULD we spend time and money to get rid of them?

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the agency will make a case-by-case review of the estimated 300,000 unauthorized immigrants who are currently facing deportation

Oh yeah and as if our courts are not clogged up enough because of this crap. Oh,and costs! It will cost a lot to do this and there goes the BUDGET! So much for cutting costs once again.

"[But] these stop-gap measures come at the expense of a permanent solution."

No, these measures come at the expense of citizens and legal immigrants who have to pay for this nonsense.