Yes He
Can, on Immigration
By THE
EDITORIAL BOARD, New York Times, April 5, 2014
If
President Obama means what he says about wanting an immigration system that
reflects American values, helps the economy and taps the yearnings of millions
of Americans-in-waiting, he is going to have to do something about it — soon
and on his own. It has been frustrating to watch his yes-we-can promises on
immigration reform fade to protestations of impotence and the blaming of
others. All Mr. Obama has been saying lately is: No, in fact, we can’t, because
Republicans and the law won’t let me.
Mr. Obama
is correct when he complains that long-term immigration repairs have been
throttled in Congress. Neo-nativist Republicans fixated on mass deportation
have blocked a worthy bipartisan bill. But Mr. Obama has compounded this
failure by clinging to a coldblooded strategy of ramped-up enforcement on the
same people he has promised to help through legislation that he has failed to
achieve.
With
nearly two million removals in the last five years, the Obama administration is
deporting people at a faster pace than has taken place under any other
president. This enormously costly effort was meant to win Republican support
for broader reform. But all it has done is add to the burden of fear, family
disruption and lack of opportunity faced by 11 million people who cannot get
right with the law. Because of Mr. Obama’s enforcement blitz, more than 5,000
children have ended up in foster care.
Mr. Obama
should know his approach is unsustainable, and immigration advocates and
lawmakers have applied intense pressure on him to deport “not one more”
deserving immigrant. With reform on life support, he recently told the Homeland
Security secretary, Jeh Johnson, to find ways to conduct immigration
enforcement more “humanely.”
That would
be nice. But that is only the beginning of what Mr. Obama and Mr. Johnson
should do.
Those who
would qualify for legalization under a Senate bill passed last summer — people
who do not pose criminal threats, who have strong ties to this country and, in
many cases, have children who are American citizens — should not be in danger
of deportation. The one recent bright spot in Mr. Obama’s immigration record
has been his decision, made on firm legal ground, to defer for two years the
deportations of young people who would have qualified for legal status under
the stalled Dream Act.
These
immigrants, known as Dreamers, are a sympathetic group, and Mr. Obama’s move to
protect them was timely and wise. But millions of other unauthorized immigrants
are just as vulnerable and no less worthy. There is no good reason not to
extend similar relief to the Dreamers’ parents, or to the parents of citizen
children and others who pose no threat and should likewise be allowed to live
and work here while efforts to pass reform continue.
Besides
deferring some deportations, the administration should adopt an array of policy
changes, no matter what Congress does. Mr. Johnson needs to get Immigration and
Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol to make noncriminals and minor
offenders the lowest deportation priorities. This has been tried before,
through a series of “prosecutorial discretion” memos that have had little
positive effect.
If their
language needs clarifying, Mr. Johnson, once the Pentagon’s top lawyer, surely
knows how to write clear rules of engagement. Some states like California
The
administration needs to find ways to turn off the deportation machinery when it
gets abused. It should end programs like Secure Communities that enlist local
police as immigration enforcers. When immigrants assert their civil and labor
rights against abusive employers, it should protect them from deportation and
retaliation.
The
administration should abandon quota-based enforcement driven by the urge to
fill more than 30,000 detention beds every day. And it should require bond
hearings before immigration judges for people who have been held longer than
six months, and end solitary confinement and other abusive conditions for
detainees. Above all, it should direct the nation’s vast immigration
enforcement resources more forcefully against gangs, guns, violent criminals
and other genuine threats.
These and
other reforms should not be confused with a comprehensive overhaul of
immigration, which only Congress can achieve. But they are ways to push a
failing system toward sanity and justice.
Mr. Obama
may argue that he can’t be too aggressive in halting deportations because that
will make the Republicans go crazy, and there’s always hope for a legislative
solution. He has often seemed like a bystander to the immigration stalemate,
watching the wheels spin, giving speeches and hoping for the best.
It’s hard
to know when he will finally stir himself to do something big and
consequential.
Please
send your reactions, comments and opinions to comments@insideins.com
Ben Ferro
It's quite clear that whomever wrote the NYT editorial really has no knowledge of what's going on vis a vis immigration enforcement (the reality is, it's non-enforcement since we know the number of interior arrests have dropped precipitously).
ReplyDelete