Thread: Nice Sentiments from Obama, but the Immigration System Needs

Nice Sentiments from Obama, but the Immigration System Needs Fixing Now

Posted: 05/23/11 11:01 AM ET

When President Obama made a renewed call for immigration reform on May 10, he rightly noted that the system is "broken." The president was also right in noting that the system must ultimately be fixed through comprehensive legislative reform, action that requires members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, to take responsibility for their complacency in perpetuating a broken system.

But in the meantime, the inaction of Congress does not absolve the president from his responsibility to take steps within his power to fix at least some of the system's serious problems.

The following stories are not isolated ones.

Mark Lyttle, a U.S. citizen, was wrongfully deported not only once, but twice, because there are no safeguards for people with mental disabilities to protect their right to a fair hearing.

Antonio Cerami, a permanent resident who had been in the U.S. for 30 years, was deported and barred from ever being with his family in the U.S. again after being given no opportunity to demonstrate rehabilitation for a 19-year-old conviction for attempted robbery.

Paulette F., an immigrant who fled Guinea to escape female genital mutilation, was put into immigration detention and unnecessarily transferred over 2,000 miles to another detention center, causing her to lose her attorney in Cleveland.

Diane O., who was 17 years old when she became a victim of trafficking and rape, was put into immigration detention, where she had no access to mental health services, further aggravating her trauma.

As Human Rights Watch has documented in numerous reports, U.S. procedures for deportation and detention are rife with serious due process shortcomings and other human rights violations.

Administrative action alone cannot address all of the ways in which the human rights of these immigrants and thousands of others have been compromised. But the executive branch does have significant power to make changes on its own. The administration could immediately exercise its prosecutorial discretion to terminate proceedings and stop deportation for legal residents with convictions for minor offenses. It could minimize the transfer of immigration detainees all over the country, as ICE said it would do in a letter to Human Rights Watch over a year ago. And it could provide better training for immigration agents to identify people who have been trafficked, so they are treated as victims and not criminals.

Most of all, the administration could shift resources into administrative reform rather than the deportation of hundreds of thousands of people through a system it acknowledges is seriously dysfunctional. President Obama has actively pushed Secure Communities, which supposedly allows ICE to identify and deport serious criminals who are not citizens by connecting its database to those of local law enforcement. But over 50% percent of those identified and deported by Secure Communities thus far had no criminal convictions or had convictions for Level 3 offenses, which can include something as minor as driving without a license.

All over the country, immigrant communities report that calls to the police to report an incident like domestic violence do not lead to protection and justice but to deportation. The administration's own concerted actions have led to the increased deportation of "decent people with the best of intentions," as the president described them.

Congress should certainly heed the president's call to enact comprehensive, practical, and fair immigration reform. But as a leader, President Obama should start by doing all that he can to minimize abuses and protect the rights of those in the system as it is today.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/grace-men ... 65517.html

The president was also right in noting that the system must ultimately be fixed through comprehensive legislative reform

No, no and NO!!!!!! The system is not broken. These stories are certainly heartbreaking but they are not representative of the millions here illegally. The majority are here for the jobs, money to send home, and free benefits for their jackpot babies and themselves.

Originally Posted by ReggieMay

These stories are certainly heartbreaking but they are not representative of the millions here illegally.

"Not to me! not anymore!" Don't come here illegally and if your here illegally go home, end of sob stories!

Not being enforced and being broken are 2 different things! While all stories above are sad this story seems to only focus on reasons we should let them stay! The truth is more people loose their lives and have way worse done to them just trying to get to the US in the first place! In that sence I agree the immigration system is broke in just letting these people think its ok to sneek in here in the first place but other than that its more the lack of inforcement that really is the issiue here. Its funny all these people cry how unfair it is that our goverment doesn't make 20 million legal but you never hear too much about the 40 thousand who were slaughtered back in mexico