New Deportation Policy Less than It Appears
In appearing to soften its immigration policy by agreeing to review hundreds of thousands of deportation cases in the pipeline, the Obama administration is either pulling off a big deal — or a big con.
Owing to experience and my own cynical nature, I’ll put my money on the latter.
Latino voters would be wise to do the same. After all, political observers insist, this is the demographic that this policy change is primarily aimed at. Latinos gave more than 66 percent of their votes to Barack Obama in 2008, but they are not likely to show him much love in 2012.
Three reasons for this: (1) Obama broke his promise to Latino groups to make immigration reform a top priority of his administration; (2) Obama also seems determined to break records in terms of deporting people — more than 1 million since taking office; and (3) in trying be simultaneously tough and compassionate, Obama has trouble matching his words with actions whenever the immigration issue comes up.
After all, this is the same administration that claimed Secure Communities — a program that compels local and state police to hand over to U.S. immigration officials the fingerprints of people they suspect of being illegal immigrants — was voluntary and aimed at hardened criminals when it wasn’t. And this is the same administration that tried to convince Latinos that Republicans killed the Dream Act when they didn’t.
In March, during a town hall in Washington, D.C., for the Spanish-language television network Univision, Obama insisted that so-called Dreamers — or college-age undocumented students who might otherwise be eligible for legal status under that failed piece of legislation called the DREAM Act — were not being deported because the administration was focused on removing illegal immigrants with criminal records. He also insisted that he didn’t have the executive power to change deportation policy by exempting any particular group from removal because this “would not conform with my appropriate role as president.”
Then, recently, in a move that some on the nativist right wing instinctively (and foolishly) labeled a “silent amnesty,” the Obama administration announced that it would review about 300,000 deportation cases currently in the pipeline to see if any of those people should remain in the United States and be given a work permit. Officials say that the groups most likely to benefit are Dreamers but also military veterans and their spouses. They claim to be exercising “prosecutorial discretion” to focus instead on criminals, i.e., bad actors who — after committing the civil infraction of violating immigration laws — graduated to committing criminal acts such as robbery, rape, assault, or other serious offenses.
So, here is where we’ve arrived: The Obama administration is doing pretty much what the president claimed he didn’t have the power to do and stopping the deportation of people who the president claimed weren’t being deported in the first place.
Confused? You’re not the only one.
The rightwingers are so disoriented that they don’t know which way is up. They say this new policy is a backdoor amnesty, but the administration hasn’t promised to set anyone free — only to review cases already in the queue. Besides, the critics said the same thing — prematurely it turned out — about a pair of governmental memos that simply explored administrative remedies to deportation. They looked foolish then, and they look foolish now.
Ironically, the same is true of liberals and immigration activists who are applauding the new policy as some major breakthrough. Part of that is desperation; the Obama administration has not been kind to the immigrant community or those who champion it. But part is a desire to claim credit for months of pressuring the administration to do the right thing — efforts that might now have paid off in the form of a reasonable new policy.
Here are the facts: The Obama administration has — in order to appear tough for voters — deported many people that, in previous administrations, would never have been removed. People like battered wives who called the police to report their spouses — and wound up being fingerprinted, handed over to immigration officials, and cleared for deportation. Or the ice cream vendor in Los Angeles who was arrested for selling frozen treats without a permit — and wound up being fingerprinted, handed over to immigration officials, and cleared for deportation.
Should Americans now be grateful that the administration is trying to correct some of its own excesses and mistakes? We’ll have to wait and see how the new policy is implemented and what good it does in the name of fairness — to repair some of the bad that has already been done in the name of politics.
The one-trick pony is back. Sigh . . .
Much of this article is true and right on the money.
Obama is trying, yet again, to con his way into the hearts of voters who self-identify as Latino and, for whom illegal immigration is a hot button issue. He wants to purchase votes with cheap nods toward “amnesty”, real or imagined.
Here is the problem. The black community has little, if any, love for the Hispanic community at the grass roots level. (they have a very negative grass roots visceral reaction to the gay community as well…and frankly, don’t have much use for hippies either…of any persuasion)
Obama is all about “soothing” words and sleight of hand actions when it comes to calming the fears of people who try to make sense of policies that are actually enforced and the ultimate reasons behind them.
The problem poor Ruben has, of course, is that he has to point out a game Obama is playing and denounce it…while playing the same game himself.
Ruben has to shed a few crocodile tears about the “unfair” treatment of the “immigrant community” who merely committed the “civil infraction” of crashing the border, theft of services, identity theft, buckling the knees of our ability to provide police, fire, school, and municipal services to actual citizens, crushing economies and tax evasion.
Ruben believes that only violent crime and gang crime…which is rife, rampant and bred from the bowels of the border crasher underbelly is a “problem” and the rest of the horrific burden on our society is merely “foolish right-wingers picking on battered women and ice cream vendors”.
The rose colored glasses only sees a lavender scented path to the military service and nursing degrees for the sons and daughters of hard working, innocent, and wonderful additions of pure benefit to our society to “civil infractionists” who merely wanted to pursue a white picket fence ideal and chased their dream.
Nice con job itself, that.
Overwhelmingly breeding instead…gangbangers, dropouts, drug dealers, violent criminals and police, prison, entitlement and educational nightmare communities.
The statistics show a different picture entirely than the one painted by poor Ruben. It is true that some wonderful kids and some law-abiding families exist and anecdotally…we can tell stories about them all day long.
As long as we ignore the tattooed necks of the murdering rapists, the drug cartel kingpins and the dropout pregnant hootchie mamas who soil the pastel facade he paints.
Ruben gets the Obama game, because you can’t con a con. Guilt-tripping non-leftsts is a shell game played by both of those sides…and in this instance…on each other here. As long as the truth remains hidden, shrouded in coded words and hyper-charged undercurrents of “racism” (or “nativism”) then it’s all about how the poor, picked on, “innocent victims” are always aggrieved, never responsible for their own condition.
This society is no longer capable of gifting grifters a free pass as permanent “takers” from our crumbling economy. The cost to our society has been so steep, the burden so heavy, we are on the brink of collapse.
And, they don’t give a Tinker’s Dam. Ruben could care less. That’s the shame of it. He is willing to sell the con time after time. The anecdotal stories of the innocent kids brought here or bred here by border crasher parents might generate some sympathy and compassion, if those stories came packaged in truth rather than lies about how very different they are from the rest of the real story.
But, Ruben can’t tell the truth. Just like Obama. Because the reality isn’t painted with pastels. Two con men passing in the night. Trying to convince each other…and us…that this time…suckers…you should buy what they are peddling.
so very true CF. and such a good post,but as far as I know the military has allways been a path to citicenship. over the years I served with queite a lot of men from different countries who were working toward citicenship,
Vagabond, you must have learned to spell in US public schools: not at all. Points well taken, nonetheless.
Excellent analysis- “two con men passing in the night.” Dead on.
WONDERFUL POST!
You are certainly correct that both Obama and Navarrette are cons, incapable of telling the truth.
But this entire article by Navarettte is not just a con– it is pointless. The new Obama policy has just been put into place, but Navarrette claims to know how it will be implemented. He knows nothing.
He mocks conservatives and says they were foolish back when there were memos floating around about Obama using back door amnesty. Oh yes, how foolish the conservatives were– because here it is, delivered up just as the administration hinted and conservatives feared. That Navarette wants to pretend it was all about nothing when first floated, and now, after it is announced, is still all about nothing– how does this clown have a column?
As you point out, we have thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of hardcore gangbangers, here and staying here, in the major cities. Every major city has a gang unit, and they know exactly who the illegal gang members are– and they can do nothing about them unless they catch them red-handed, in the act of committing a crime. Even then, it is difficult to get them removed. American citizens are being maimed and killed by the gangbanging punks who should be rounded up and deported immediately, yet we get Navarette and Obama playing more games, telling more lies.
Navarette has written a dishonest account of the situation. Even his two unnamed anecdotal examples of “injustice” only can claim “cleared for deportation” and not “deported.” Do we have to wonder why he can’t even come up with two identifiable instances where deportation actually occurred?
“Navarette has written a dishonest account of the situation. Even his two unnamed anecdotal examples of “injustice” only can claim “cleared for deportation” and not “deported.” Do we have to wonder why he can’t even come up with two identifiable instances where deportation actually occurred?”
–
Even if he could cite verifiable cases where someone had been deported, the next question is for how long? The way I hear it, many deportees simply come back a few weeks or months later through the same porous border.
Great post!
I am a first generation American, and grew up along the Texas-Mexico border and I have seen first-hand what you pointed out. Yes, there are illegal aliens and illegal alien families which are nice decent people (after having violated the proper and correct immigration laws of a sovereign nation) who have inspiring and/or sad stories we could share all day, but the reason they stand out is because the vast majority of illegal aliens do not live such inspiring lives. Additionally because of their status as illegal aliens, they naturally live in fear of the authorities so have to turn to others for “protection” thereby funding and legitimizing organized crime, and they all engage in identity theft of necessity.
How is it excessive if they are, in fact, illegal? I’m all for fast-tracking the deportation of illegal immigrants who are violent criminals, but the system exists to deport illegal immigrants, regardless.
Personally, I believe the law should be changed to give amnesty to illegals who have served this country’s military honorably– if you’re willing to fight and die for this country, I think that proves you’re willing to be an American. I also think that could be a fast-track to citizenship for people who want to be Americans– if you can speak english and want to join the US military for four years, you get an instant green card good for the length of your miltary contract, with full citizenship upon completion (or awarded posthumously, if necessary.)
Since we’re talking about politics and “endearing” oneself to a certain demographic, gratuitously slipping the word “nativist” in an article to describe people who would like to see the laws as they are written simply enforced isn’t– from a purely political standpoint– a brilliant move either.
Maybe you shouldn’t be given political advice you just can’t seem to follow?
CableGuy the military has been a pathway to citisenship sense back in the 50′s. I served with a lot of men frommany different countries who were working toward their citisenship. they had to be Honorably discharged to get it,
Everything Obama does is a con. He’s a CONMAN. That’s what they DO!
Obama’s, ‘..not been kind to the immigrant community or those who champion it’. ARE YOU KIDDING??
Uhbama and Eric ‘My people’ Holder with assistance from the 9th railroaded over Arizona voters when emasculating their SB1070 and intervening in other state’s attempts to curb illegals destroying their community, finances and safety of their neighborhoods, their children’s schools etc.,
Uhbama (as well as past Presidents) and his clan intervene/end state passed immigration bills and later claim the immigration system is ‘broken’.
The ONLY reasons the system is purportedly ‘broken’ is this recent ‘policy’, DREAM Act and other actions/inaction (whether ignoring the federal law, bullying the individual states, ignoring the much needed border fence etc.,) that seriously undermine the sovereignty and safety of our country.
Lastly, Ruben. How long do you think the government will take to review 300k aliens?
There are tens of thousands of USPTO employees (if you’re ever in Alexandria, see for yourself. Just outside the Metro station. Crazy..) yet that same office is 700k patents behind in their paperwork. The Senate’s recent ‘Patent Bill’ crushes private inventor’s incentives and adding many more hurdles to cross for theor ideas to come to fruition.
Yep, these 300k and future aliens to ‘investigate’ will take years. And you know it.
From the L.A. Times:
“There are 300,000 in the caseload who will be looked at, one at a time,” said a senior administration official.
I am pretty sure they mean it when they say “one at a time.”
“Lastly, Ruben. How long do you think the government will take to review 300k aliens?
There are tens of thousands of USPTO employees (if you’re ever in Alexandria, see for yourself. Just outside the Metro station. Crazy..) yet that same office is 700k patents behind in their paperwork. The Senate’s recent ‘Patent Bill’ crushes private inventor’s incentives and adding many more hurdles to cross for theor ideas to come to fruition.
Yep, these 300k and future aliens to ‘investigate’ will take years. And you know it.”
–
This obviously provides ample justification for hiring yet more civil servants to clear up the unconscionable backlog….
Not that things will actually get done any faster with more civil servants on the job. After all, you can’t expect a big complex organization to build Rome in a day.
The open borders movement is great success for the far left. Just as 27 million new food stamps recipients are mostly new democratic voters, 23 million new immigrants are also. Soros and President Obamapromter have cruelly calculated that poor immigrants will supply the votes for political domination. Better yet, executive discretion decides who stays. No more silly immigration law, it’s all now government discretion. The far left Justice Dept. lawyer decides who gets to stay. Overnight, the entire immigrant community is dependent solely on Obamapromter.
Exactly why does the current immigration policy need to be reformed? All we need to do is strengthen the border and follow existing laws. We do not have to “do something” about the 12-20 million illegal immigrants already in the country. Why must we come up with a “pathway to citizenship” for any of them? They already have a pathway: enter the United States legally and follow the rules, as my Hispanic wife did. If 12-20 million people have “lived in the shadows” for years, who cares if they live out the rest of their lives in the same shadows? If they want to get out from under the shadows, they can go back home.
As usual, Navarrette is a “one note Jarabe Tapatio,” who is incapable of writing a column about anything but “La Raza.”
There are no politicians who will ever do what you are suggesting, since it would involve the use of “common sense”. The “Illegal Immigration Game” cannot be played if the rulebook is revised to allow any sort of intelligent solution.
We MUST have “comprehensive reform” because, as we all know, there is nothing in life that can be done one step at a time.
We are Reconquering the Southwest…and you gringos can’t stop us. Our population is rapidly growing, and the gringo population is aging and declining. We are over 50 million and united. You are down to 63.7% and extremely divided…and will be a minority by 2041. We are already a majority of the population under 18 in Alta California, Tejas, Nuevo Mexico and Arizona… and are rapidly taking over Nevada, Colorado, and Florida.
We are young and vigorous. You gringos are old and tired. We are the future. Your time has passed. We have defeated you without firing a shot. It is too late for you gringos to stop us from taking over the country. Gringos are down to only 53.5% of the population under 18…and a minority of births since 2010. You gringos will soon be a minority, and lose control of your own destiny. We will control who gets elected President. We will DOMINATE Alta California, Tejas, Nuevo Mexico and Arizona…and will be the swing voters in the swing states — Nevada, Colorado, and Florida. Whoever doesn’t do La Raza’s bidding will be thrown out of office.
We have Reconquered the Southwest from you gringos without firing a shot. Don’t you see that we have defeated you? You have no leaders, no hope, no future. You gringos will soon pay the price for your sins against us. The 21st century will undo and reverse the 19th century. La Reconquista is almost complete. It is only a matter of time. We are nearly there. In a few years it will all be over for you gringos.
Do you understand that we are CONQUERING this country right now right in front of your eyes, in broad daylight, without a shot being fired? Do you understand that we are CONQUERING America right now…and that your leaders are like the American Indian chiefs who sold their tribes out for bottles of Kickapoo Joy Juice and some repeating rifles…
We have already RECONQUERED the entire Southwest — Alta California, Tejas, Nuevo Mexico, and Arizona. We will soon have control of Nevada, Colorado, Florida, and Utah. After that, we will proceed to invade, conquer, and colonize the entire country. We are repopulating the country. We will eventually drive all you gringos out of the country, to Canada, back to Europe, to Mars, whatever, just get the hell out of this country because we’re taking over, and we don’t want you racist gringos here. We will drive you gringos out of here as sure as I’m standing here.
We have CONQUERED you without firing a shot. La Raza is 50 million strong…and by 2050 we will be 135 million concentrated in the Southwest that borders Mexico. La Reconquista is almost comnplete. We are taking back the Southwest, the land that you gringos stole from us in the 19th century. Demographics Is Destiny. We are repopulating the country. It is all over for you gringos. By 2041 you gringos will be a minority. A minority that is aging, shrinking and dying. By 2050 we will be 135 million strong, about 30% of the population, an overwhelming majority in the Southwest — and an even greater percentage of children. We will soon be an outright majority.
The Gringo’s world is ending… Not with a bang but a whimper.
The Gringo is going gentle into that good night… Don’t rage against the dying of the Gringo’s light.
Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada.
Oh sure…so every time a graduating member of “the race” is pictured in the paper or elsewhere I am always looking to see what the degree is. Never any engineers, scientists, or other fields that require brainpower. However, degrees in communications, sociology, latin studies seem to be favored. Then I find such graduates in my doctor’s office at the front desk with bouffant hairdos, speaking flawed english. Pretty nice people but dumb. When I see members of “the race” I see unhealthy looking young punks in pants falling below the knees, multiple tattoos, sometimes with fake diamonds in ears. Sad. Still you are probably correct, the future belongs to you and your gang members but my family doesn’t have to suffer for it, we have a better place to move to. After you made a mess of things you will be only too happy to have inventive people, intelligent, motivated, and ambitious to bail you out. So good luck to you if you like to have the government take care of you. Remember what it giveth it can taketh away especially when it runs out of other peoples’ money.
A numerous but uneducated Latinate peasantry, facing a minority speaking a Germanic language…I know I’ve seen this before, I just can’t recall when.
Chingate, pince cabrone. Come el pardo de tu perro, mamachingero. Hola, joto, porque quieres comer caca? Para vovota?
Too bad La Raza doesn’t have the brain power to accomplish their goals. Thug-ism only goes so far.
There is no Secure Communities Program. If there was one here in Mass, we wouldn’t be mourning our citizens being murdered by illegal immigrants with long arrest sheets, even convictions.
Sure, and illegal immigration is not to blame for this fatality, says 0bamas’ mini-me:
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2011/08/27/illegal_immigration_is_not_to_blame_for_fatality_patrick_says/?
Oh thank Jeebus. I was beginning to think something had happened to La Raza. But here it is again with its cut and paste. And its delusions…
Consigue un agarre slimeball… Nos será barrido de. Son un pueblo salvaje primitivo de tercer mundo. Si tuviera cualquier smarts no tienes que dejar el pozo que procedencia.
Just recently, Gov. Perry just sent a bill to Washington D.C. some $330,000 fee for incarcerating illegals. I wish Governor Brown would do the same; 30% of California’s prisons are illegal alien criminals.
Option #2. Just load them on buses, forget about any protocol or agreement with Mexico and dump them over the fence with their prison garb. It is our state, we have the right to protect ourselves, so we can make room for all the prisoners that Governor Brown was ordered to release. Just clean out the illegals and make the prison acceptable for more criminals.
Perhaps if our immigration system hadn’t been destroyed by Teddy Kennedy–take in anybody rather than people with the skills the country needed–we wouldn’t be in this mess. Those illegals championed, and cherry-picked, by Dick Durbin in his Senate hearing should be immediately be given a special fast track green card. We need people like the one lady who had earned a degree as a Mechanical Engineer. Accepting people with skills before the non-skilled would turn the tide on immigration. Import people who will be law-abiding, tax-paying citizens. Then start hammering with E-Verify as the law of the land, which the Supreme Court said it was–no welfare and “free” social services for anybody who can walk across our borders. Revisit the actual purpose of the 14th Amendment to stop the anchor babies. Immigration is necessary, but America needs to pick who its new citizens will be.
Ave atque Vale,
Chuck
We don’t need immigration reform, we have laws on the books that simply must be enforced. When the left speaks of reform, and that includes Ruben Navarette, it means amnesty and automatic citizenship for all illegals in the country. This would ensure permanent one party political power for the Dems. The odd Russian, European or Asian illegal might deviate from that because, collectively, these folk tend to comprehend what is happening in the country, something which the majority of illegals does not. My late husband and I immigrated legally, we took out citizenship after 5 years. In about 1956 an immigrant brother in law was drafted into the army after having arrived in the US six months prior. He became a citizen before we did because he served in the military, so this is nothing new.
Currently our ‘government’ has no identifiable policy on anything, merely an adherence to some perverse agenda that is clearly not of The United States of America, or any of the Americas for that matter.
This additional little bit of Navarrette disinformation is a weak echo of the main propaganda branch of our developing central government taken over by criminals — who think they have become The Law.
About time to stop listening to the sounds of the septic tank and put some principled action into the mix, especially if voting them out is made impossible. Soon to know.
More Navarrette lies. The woman who was an alleged victim of domestic abuse who was arrested by the LAPD was not deported. Nor was the the ice cream vendor. They were both beneficiaries of the Obama Administrative Amnesty. Yah, the ICE officers tried to deport them, but they were stopped by Obama.
Blanca Perez, Ice Cream Vendor, still in the United States. Not deported as Ruben “The Sandwich” Navarrette claimed:
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/08/immigrants_plead_for_end_to_fi.html
Again, more lies from Ruben “The Sandwich” Navarrette:
Isaura Garcia is still here in the U.S.
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=8128621
Why does PJ publish Navarrette’s lies?