So here is an outline of how Obama has been handling the immigration front, and I must say I am impressed and in fact astounded to hear that this is the case.
What he has done since he’s been in office:
- Slowed down work-site raids on illegal. Focuses mainly on punishing employers by levying record fines on those who hire illegals
- Deported 25% more illegal’s than Bush.
- Quadrupled audits of companies suspected of hiring illegals. (Compared to Bush)
- Deployed troops to the Mexican border
- Puts focus on repeat offenders, those with criminal records, and those that have been deported already in the past. Is lenient on mothers or those tending to the ill, and focuses mainly on the criminals.
- Is now using fingerprinting to identify illegals in our jails and deporting them.
Complaints by both sides:
- Right: By only prosecuting and deporting the criminals, and allowing the others just looking for work to come through, it is nothing more than selective amnesty, as anyone who is here illegally has commited a federal felony.
- Left: Upset that immigration laws are being enforced at all. Points out that while the official focus is on catching and deporting criminal illegals, those just looking for work are often times deported as well.
Both are legit opinions and this proves why no President ever wants to touch the illegal immigration issue. It’s a lose/lose situation and both sides will always hate you. But it appears he is, in fact, doing something about it (likely in an attempt to get the right to warm up to him so he can pass immigration reform)
Here is the article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...072501790.html
In a bid to remake the enforcement of federal immigration laws, the Obama administration is deporting record numbers of illegal immigrants and auditing hundreds of businesses that blithely hire undocumented workers.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency expects to deport about 400,000 people this fiscal year, nearly 10 percent above the Bush administration's 2008 total and 25 percent more than were deported in 2007. The pace of company audits has roughly quadrupled since President George W. Bush's final year in office.
The Obama administration has been moving away from using work-site raids to target employers. Just 765 undocumented workers have been arrested at their jobs this fiscal year, compared with 5,100 in 2008, according to Department of Homeland Security figures. Instead, officers have increased employer audits, studying the employee documentation of 2,875 companies suspected of hiring illegal workers and assessing $6.4 million in fines.
On the ground, a program known as Secure Communities uses the fingerprints of people in custody for other reasons to identify deportable immigrants.
The Secure Communities project has identified 240,000 illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, according to DHS figures. Of those, about 30,000 have been deported, including 8,600 convicted of what the agency calls "the most egregious offenses."
A June 30 memorandum from ICE director John Morton instructed officers to focus their "principal attention" on felons and repeat lawbreakers. The policy, influenced by a series of sometimes-heated White House meetings, also targets repeat border crossers and declares that parents caring for children or the infirm should be detained only in unusual cases.
"We're trying to put our money where our mouth is," Morton said in an interview, describing the goal as a "rational" immigration policy. "You've got to have aggressive enforcement against criminal offenders. You have to have a secure border. You have to have some integrity in the system."
What he has done since he’s been in office:
- Slowed down work-site raids on illegal. Focuses mainly on punishing employers by levying record fines on those who hire illegals
- Deported 25% more illegal’s than Bush.
- Quadrupled audits of companies suspected of hiring illegals. (Compared to Bush)
- Deployed troops to the Mexican border
- Puts focus on repeat offenders, those with criminal records, and those that have been deported already in the past. Is lenient on mothers or those tending to the ill, and focuses mainly on the criminals.
- Is now using fingerprinting to identify illegals in our jails and deporting them.
Complaints by both sides:
- Right: By only prosecuting and deporting the criminals, and allowing the others just looking for work to come through, it is nothing more than selective amnesty, as anyone who is here illegally has commited a federal felony.
- Left: Upset that immigration laws are being enforced at all. Points out that while the official focus is on catching and deporting criminal illegals, those just looking for work are often times deported as well.
Both are legit opinions and this proves why no President ever wants to touch the illegal immigration issue. It’s a lose/lose situation and both sides will always hate you. But it appears he is, in fact, doing something about it (likely in an attempt to get the right to warm up to him so he can pass immigration reform)
Here is the article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...072501790.html
In a bid to remake the enforcement of federal immigration laws, the Obama administration is deporting record numbers of illegal immigrants and auditing hundreds of businesses that blithely hire undocumented workers.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency expects to deport about 400,000 people this fiscal year, nearly 10 percent above the Bush administration's 2008 total and 25 percent more than were deported in 2007. The pace of company audits has roughly quadrupled since President George W. Bush's final year in office.
The Obama administration has been moving away from using work-site raids to target employers. Just 765 undocumented workers have been arrested at their jobs this fiscal year, compared with 5,100 in 2008, according to Department of Homeland Security figures. Instead, officers have increased employer audits, studying the employee documentation of 2,875 companies suspected of hiring illegal workers and assessing $6.4 million in fines.
On the ground, a program known as Secure Communities uses the fingerprints of people in custody for other reasons to identify deportable immigrants.
The Secure Communities project has identified 240,000 illegal immigrants convicted of crimes, according to DHS figures. Of those, about 30,000 have been deported, including 8,600 convicted of what the agency calls "the most egregious offenses."
A June 30 memorandum from ICE director John Morton instructed officers to focus their "principal attention" on felons and repeat lawbreakers. The policy, influenced by a series of sometimes-heated White House meetings, also targets repeat border crossers and declares that parents caring for children or the infirm should be detained only in unusual cases.
"We're trying to put our money where our mouth is," Morton said in an interview, describing the goal as a "rational" immigration policy. "You've got to have aggressive enforcement against criminal offenders. You have to have a secure border. You have to have some integrity in the system."
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