Obama’s broken immigration promise – Salon

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The Obama administration claims that it is deporting record numbers of illegal immigrants while focusing on those with criminal records. But new data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows that the number of deportation orders has declined dramatically since last summer and non-criminals comprise a growing percentage of those expelled from the country. That wasn’t supposed to happen under a policy of “prosecutorial discretion” announced by ICE director John Morton last June. The goal of the policy, patient announced with much fanfare in the Spanish language media, was to spare “longtime lawful residents” from deportation and to focus on criminals. Since then, the adminstration has deported many fewer non-criminal aliens. But non-criminals remain the vast majority of those deported. And those with no criminal record now actually comprise a slightly larger percentage of those forced to leave the country than they did before Morton’s announcement.

Obama’s broken immigration promise – Salon

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The Obama administration claims that it is deporting record numbers of illegal immigrants while focusing on those with criminal records. But new data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows that the number of deportation orders has declined dramatically since last summer and non-criminals comprise a growing percentage of those expelled from the country. That wasn’t supposed to happen under a policy of “prosecutorial discretion” announced by ICE director John Morton last June. The goal of the policy, announced with much fanfare in the Spanish language media, ask was to spare “longtime lawful residents” from deportation and to focus on criminals. Since then, the adminstration has deported many fewer non-criminal aliens. But non-criminals remain the vast majority of those deported. And those with no criminal record now actually comprise a slightly larger percentage of those forced to leave the country than they did before Morton’s announcement.

Manchester residents protest immigration program – WMUR

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The so-called “Se Communities” program is starting to be rolled out state-by-state. It went into effect in New Hampshire last week without much fanfare. Officials said the program starts when police take fingerprints. Those prints are routinely sent to the FBI. Now the FBI must share those fingerprints with the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division to check for illegal immigrants. While some in the public are unhappy with the idea, many in the government seem at peace with it. The governor’s office said the state routinely shares data with the federal government, and many police departments have said it doesn’t change what they do at all. Demonstrators stood on the steps of the federal building in Manchester to protest the program. “The problem with this is it leads to an increased possibility of racial profiling, an increased possibility that police might pick people up and charge them with something just to get their fingerprints…”

Racial Profiling Bill And Se Communities Intersect in CT

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The recently adopted racial profiling legislation that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is expected to sign may help the state assess the impact of the controversial federal “Se Communities” immigration policy, stuff according to the governor’s top criminal justice adviser. The bill strengthens a law requiring police to report traffic stop data so that it can be analyzed by the state for evidence of racial profiling. But Michael P. Lawlor, the Office of Policy and Management’s head of criminal justice, said that analysis could also uncover misuse of a federal immigration policy. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Se Communities program shares information and fingerprints collected by local police departments with the federal immigration and customs enforcement agency. At a Thursday meeting of an advisory group created to implement the state’s new racial profiling initiative, Lawlor said he has heard concerns that police may be more inclined to fingerprint someone

Aaron Hurst: Going Face-to-Face With Day Laborers

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and Century, Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; text-align: left;”>Pablo Alvarado came to the United States from El Salvador in the 1990s and worked for five years as an undocumented laborer. Today he works for the National Day Laborer Organization Network (NDLON) and helps to fight for the rights and dignity of day laborers. I learned of his story when the Taproot Foundation partnered with Pablo and NDLON and recently sat down to capture his inspiring story.

The immigration debate in this country has become really ugly in recent years.

Yes. Day laborers have become the public face of immigration. They have been demonized. Many people have described the day laborers as unwanted people and criminals. People who are murdering and harassing women. I think we are capable of having a debate in which people are not dehumanized in the process.