Thread: U.S. plans raids to deport families who surged across border

December 24, 2015 1:03 p.m.

The Obama Administration’s New Deportation Plan Could Be a Headache for Clinton

By Eric Levitz
Follow @ericlevitz


Central American immigrants wait to be transported after turning themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol.Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to raid the homes of hundreds of Central American families who crossed the U.S. border over the past two years amid an upsurge in regional violence, the WashingtonPost reports. The operation would target families that have already been denied asylum and issued orders to leave the country. More than 100,000 Central American families have crossed the border since January of 2014.

The move comes as drought and a record level of homicides in El Salvador have driven a new wave of migrants across the southern border. According to The Wall Street Journal, more than 12,000 people traveling in family units were apprehended at the border in October and November, up from 4,500 in the same months last year. The number of unaccompanied minors who were detained in those two months exceeded 10,000, compared with 5,000 during the same period in 2014.

A government official told the Journal that the goal of the deportation raids is “to send the message to would-be crossers that they won't be allowed to remain in the U.S.” According to the Post, the operation is controversial within the Obama administration, and is likely to prove even more divisive beyond the White House gates.

“This is the last thing we expected from the administration at this point, ” executive director of the National Immigration Law Center Marilena Hincapie told the Journal. “It is time that administration acknowledge once and for all that these mothers and children are refugees just like Syrians.”

Hincapie’s position is shared by left-wing Latino advocacy groups more broadly, which may put the Democratic Party’s 2016 front-runner between Barack and a hard place.

“This will be a political nightmare for the Democrats,” immigration advocate Frank Sharry told the the Post’s Greg Sargent. “The specter of raids picking up families and sending them back to violent countries is going to put Hillary Clinton in a difficult position. She’ll have to choose between protecting refugees from Central America, a demand of the Latino community, or standing with the law-and-order position of Obama and Republicans.”

When the migrant crisis first surfaced in 2014, Clinton initially suggested that the unaccompanied minors flocking across the border should be “sent back.” In the wake of harsh criticism from immigration advocates, Clinton clarified that she did not oppose resettling child migrants who were ruled “genuine refugees.”

Her main rival for the nomination, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, condemned the new deportation plan on Thursday.

"I am very disturbed by reports that the government may commence raids to deport families who have fled here to escape violence in Central America," Sanders said in a statement. "As we spend time with our families this holiday season, we who are parents should ask ourselves what we would do if our children faced the danger and violence these children do? How far would we go to protect them?"

Sargent notes that the new operation could undermine the sharp distinctions between the Democratic Party’s platform on immigration and that of Trump and company — distinctions that have Blue America’s operatives dreaming of a landslide victory among Latino voters in 2016.

President Obama’s legacy on immigration has been a cause of outrage on both the left and right. Immigration advocates have decried the president as “the deporter-in-chief” for the record number of deportations under his administration, while right-wing media has branded him a Constitution-defying tyrant for issuing executive orders that protect certain categories of undocumented immigrants from the threat of deportation.

On Tuesday, the Obama administration announced that deportations dropped by 25 percent in 2015, to 235,413, the lowest total since 2006.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...-families.html

Any of them that got a license will be easy to find.

http://www.alipac.us/f12/i-c-e-can-u...aliens-316141/

"Federal agents earlier this year arrested several immigrants with prior deportation orders after apparently identifying them with help from driver's license photo and vehicle information."

There are so many ways to find them. State and local law enforcement knows how to do this. We need to cut them loose to do so. They can find them wherever they are and they are everywhere.

by CAROLINE MAY
24 Dec 2015

In the face of a renewed spike in illegal immigration from Central America and restrictions on detaining families, the Obama administration is reportedly planning to execute a series of raids aimed at deporting hundreds of illegal immigrants who arrived in the U.S. over the past two years.

The Washington Post reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could begin “the first large-scale effort” to deport the illegal immigrant “family units” who arrived in the U.S. from Central America, ordered for deportation by an immigration judge but instead absconded, vanishing into the interior of the U.S.

More then 100,000 adults with children have flooded into the U.S. over the past two years, expecting to be allowed to stay. According to the Washington Post the number of “family units” the administration will target for deportation is expected to be “to be in the hundreds and possibly greater.”

The newspaper notes that the plans have been “controversial” inside the Obama administration — under which deportations have plummeted. With a new surge of illegal immigration underway from Central America and a recent court decision mandating the release of illegal families in detention, the administration seems to feel pressure to respond, the newspaper reports.

“The court decision and the sudden spike led to the decision to begin planning the upcoming raid, said officials familiar with the deliberations, who said DHS knows the deportations will be inflammatory but believes it must enforce the law,” the Post reports.

While immigration activist groups are likely to protest the move, immigration hawks are skeptical that an Obama deportation effort will be effective at dissuading the continued run on the border or happen at all.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told the paper. “What share is this going to be?. . . It’s a drop in the bucket compared to the number they’ve admitted into the country. If you have photogenic raids on a few dozen illegal families and that’s the end of it, it’s just for show. It’s just a [public relations] thing, enforcement theater.”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...-border-surge/

There could be a good case made that the Unaccompanied minors should be automatically returned. We do have the international conventions to return children and it is not normal that minors travel across distant nation borders on their own without passports. The Inter American convention doesn't even stipulate that it has to be a parent in the home country requesting the return.

This could all be a ploy by the Obama administration to gain more sympathy for illegals and also to rally their supporters/activist groups. Isn't this kind of information normally kept on a need to know basis? I wouldn't think it would be something shared with the media unless there was a benefit to do so. I can think of no advantage to be gained by federal law enforcement with this early warning of things to come. I'm probably wrong on this, but just thought it may be something worth considering.

12/25/15

http://www.alipac.us/f12/homeland-se...merica-326668/

12/25/15

Churches offer refuge for Central Americans facing U.S. deportation

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

12/25/15

Churches offer refuge for Central Americans facing U.S. deportation

Yep, just like I thought ........ it's starting.

Immigration officials planning mass deportations in January

In an unexpected announcement on Thursday, The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to raid and deport hundreds of undocumented aliens who have illegally crossed the southern border,The Washington Post reports. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel will begin the operation in January. That will include adults and children who have been ordered deported by immigration judges.

Ironically in an administration that has unsuccessfully attempted through executive order to provide amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson has been pushing for the deportations, the Post said. It has sent major reverberations through the Obama White House.

Secretary Johnson’s mission swirls around the massive increase of illegals from Central America. A recent court ruling said that “…families must be released more quickly from detention centers.” The main influx derives from increasing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. It has pushed more people from those nations to flee to the United States.

The Washington Post filed the story Thursday night. The substance of the intended program is to reduce the number of Central American immigrants in the country illegally. That projected figure has escalated dramatically in recent years as families and individuals, including unaccompanied children, flee the worsening conditions in their respected countries. More than 100,000 families with children have crossed the southern border illegally. It is those families who will be the primary target of the raids, according to The Post.

The move by immigration officials comes at a time when debates over the issue of illegal immigration and the granting of refugee status have become particularly poisonous. In the race for the presidency in 2016, Republican candidate Donald Trump has been the leading advocate for deportations in the millions. But the idea didn’t come from his mouth originally. The idea originates from a pressing need to stop the chaos of illegal immigration in the U.S. It has resulted in a public policy that has shifted to a more authoritarian-type direction that would make the Donald Trumps of the world happy.

Immigration officials planning mass deportations in January | Examiner.com