SAUNDERS: Obama's lowest priority
tahoedailytribune.com
Thursday, August 25, 2011
by Debra J. Saunders

President Barack Obama is in a pickle. Immigration enforcement actually is working — or at least it was working.

Under the Obama administration, the government has removed almost 400,000 illegal immigrants annually. That's 4 percent of the 10 million illegal immigrants estimated to be living in America — and it sends a warning to those thinking of illegally entering the United States.

Thanks to the Secure Communities program, which requires local law enforcement to share arrestees' fingerprints with Washington, about half of those deported have criminal records. According to the administration, the vast majority of the rest either recrossed the border after deportation or were recently caught.

So what did the White House announce last week? On Thursday, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecilia Munoz blogged that the Department of Homeland Security will review its entire deportation caseload — that's 300,000 cases — to “clear out low-priorityâ€