Speaking to the National Council of La Raza in July, President
Obama told his restive audience that he was bound to enforce the
country’s immigration laws and couldn’t change them without
congressional approval. In response, the crowd chanted, “Yes you
can, yes you can!”
La Raza apparently changed the president’s mind, because
according to an August 18
letter from Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, yes
he did. Napolitano informed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and
21 other senators that DHS was focused on removing only illegal
immigrants who were violent criminals, convicted felons, or repeat
violators.
Additionally, the administration will individually review the
cases of over 300,000 illegal immigrants already in deportation
proceedings to make sure that they are in line with the new
enforcement priorities. That means some will not only be let go but
also be given
work permits.
Many of those getting a pass would have been amnestied by the
DREAM Act, which Congress has repeatedly defeated under both
Democratic and Republican majorities. “The President has said on
numerous occasions that it makes no sense to expend our enforcement
resources on low-priority cases,” Napolitano wrote, such as the
DREAM Act’s more sympathetic poster children.
Yes, he can.
In June, the head of Obama’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) agency sent out a
memo highlighting all the factors that should be taken into
consideration when exercising prosecutorial discretion in
immigration cases. Critics blasted
the document as an announcement that the federal government was
going to effectively stop arresting entire categories of illegal
aliens.
This summer’s moves follow repeated
leaks of documents showing that the bureaucracies charged with
immigration enforcement had discussed administrative alternatives
to “comprehensive immigration reform” — that is, ways to advance
amnesty through the executive branch. Describing these documents as
mere brainstorming sessions, DHS representatives have only denied
that they would use their discretion to amnesty the entire illegal
immigrant population.
In her letter to Reid and company, Napolitano continues to
advocate the passage of the DREAM Act, noting that the new policy
“will not provide categorical relief for any group.” DHS is well
within in its rights to set enforcement priorities, and the removal
of criminal aliens is a logical place to start. Prosectuors also
need a certain amount of discretion. But these tools should not be
used to bypass Congress and set policy.
Napolitano wrote that over 50 percent of the illegal aliens
deported in fiscal 2010 were convicted criminals. More than
two-thirds of the remainder were either apprehended at the border
or were “repeat violators of our immigration laws.” The secretary
said they aim to continue this trend.
This explains a seemingly contradictory policy where the Obama
administration has been simutaneously pushing the Secure
Communities program against liberal opposition while also suing
states that enact laws like Arizona’s SB 1070. The first focuses
only on criminal aliens in local custody. The latter targets
illegal immigrants more generally, and the White House is signaling
that simply being in the country illegally is no longer sufficient
grounds for removal — or at least not a priority.
“Both the nature and timing of the decision suggest that
presidential politics is at play here,” Wendy Schiller, a Brown
University political scientist, told
CNN. “Obama has lost ground with his liberal base… and he
absolutely needs strong support in states with large Hispanic
populations to keep the White House for four more years.”
That’s why the administration quietly let the new policy slip
while Congress was out of town and the president was on his way to
Martha’s Vineyard.
Play immigration politics as a Democratic get-out-the-vote
effort in 2012? Yes, he can.
