Obama/Napolitano Plan Sheds Doubt on Campaign Pledge for "Path to Citizenship"
The effort is likely to significantly reshape immigration enforcement...
The Washington Post reports that the Obama Administration plans to continue a policy begun by the Bush Administration to screen people in jail for deportation, if they are found to be undocumented.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has made it "very clear" that her top priority is deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, said David J. Venturella, program director at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In short, the program's modus it to fingerprint all detainees in US jails to screen for immigration status. The ideas is that by screening everyone, the program avoids racial profiling.
While this may be true, two figures from the article are worth noting in light of the campaign rhetoric Team Obama promoted regarding undocumented people only last year, during then-Senator Obama's successful presidential campaign, a campaign in which he earned 67% of the Latino vote (as opposed to 31% for Republican Senator John McCain).
The first figure is that "fingerprints from 1 million local jail bookings will be screened under the program...and will expand to nearly all local jails by the end of 2012." The second is that "President Obama asked Congress last week for $200 million for the program, a 30 percent increase that puts it on track to receive $1.1 billion by 2013."
The implication here is that undocumented people will remain undocumented at until at least 2013, after the conclusion of President Obama's first term. After all, a program to deport undocumented people would be unnecessary in the advent of the comprehensive immigration reform advocating a "path to citizenship" that was promised during campaign '08, when then-Senator Obama said that "[illegal immigrants] broke the law and we can't excuse that - but we can't deport 12million people. " But under Napolitano's plan, it seems, we could...at least, in theory. After all, an illegal immigrant has already committed a crime, and all 'criminals' who arrive in U.S. jails will face deportation if they are found to be undocumented, an effort our Homeland Security Secretary is making her "top priority."
What is controversial about that deporting illegal aliens in jail for breaking other laws, and how is that breaking a campaign pledge? Where, exactly, did Obama pledge not to deport illegal aliens who get arrested in the US for other crimes? If you want to make the counter argument, please do. But, don't think that your argument is supported by even a fraction of the electorate.
That is the absolute worst argument with regards to this nation's immigration policy I have ever heard of.
May 19, 2009 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
1. Obama said that comprehensive immigration reform would be a year one priority.
2. Comprehensive immigration reform entails a "path to citizenship."
3. Now, the Department of Homeland Security is to receive funds for the above-described program through 2013, a program that would be unnecessary if immigration was reformed and undocumented people were made citizens, through whatever process, before 2013.
You completely misread what I wrote, which, after rereading what I wrote makes sense, as what I wrote wasn't written as clearly as perhaps it should have been. My argument is simply that this plan implies that:
a) Obama is balking on comprehensive immigration reform, and
b) He will likely continue to do so through his first term.
Politico's Ben Smith wrote an article yesterday discussing, among other things, how this could be useful to the Republican party.
May 19, 2009 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama made campaign promises about forcing a renegotiation of bad trade deals, including NAFTA and MFN status w/China, I don't see Manfiquez having kittens over those and other broken promises.
Citizens have lost jobs to the benefit of Mexico, China and other countries. The US takes in 2 million legal immigrants per year, far more than all the other nations of the world combined. Citizens owe NO ONE an apology for demanding that the line be drawn when it comes to those who enter our country illegally. We have tent cities springing up all across the US, some that have been in existence since last fall. I read about the second tent city in Providence, RI, which is filled with displaced nurses, tech workers, construction workers, electricians, and so many other citizen workers. I watched an interview with an LPN, whose job was lost in downsizing, yet the same hospital then turned around and hired a bunch of nurses from the Phillipines, who they had requested visas for, because they claimed they "couldn't find any nurses to hire as there is a shortage". And the "democrat" mayor of Providence, David Cicciline, has been trying to shut down both tent cities, because "it doesn't look good".
There are many tent cities in California, including in Sacremento, large populations of which are citizens who have always worked, but have been displaced. There are several in Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio, Nevada, Minnesota, Massachusetts, all across the country. This is a phenomenon we haven't seen since the great depression, when they were called Hoovervilles. Today, a more appropriate name would be Obamavilles.
Illegal aliens from south of the border, aren't coming here because they are starving, or living in tent cities, they are coming here because they believe they'll get rich quick, they are informed by organizations like La Raza, Maldef and Lulac, that they can collect free benefits, welfare, housing, food stamps and health care, when they start having children, and they do. All the while working jobs that used to lift citizens out of poverty. I know a woman in RI, who was denied food stamps, after her work hours were cut back to 30 per week. The excuse was she earned $5. per week too much (after taxes, she earns around $143. per week). and she supports a disabled husband, who has been denied any disability benefits or medical assistance. She earns minimum wage as a cleaner in a nursing home. The job used to pay 11.35 per hour, but increased competition has dragged down wages.
Mexico promised to enact reforms, under NAFTA, as the 3 million jobs it would get immediately, would create a middle class, a tax base it could raise revenue upon. It has been able to avoid doing so, because democrats in congress have refused to enforce immigration laws. Immigration laws, I might add, were created not to be cruel, but to protect the poorest, most vulnerable citizens from being discriminated against by employers. Perhaps Mr. Manriquez needs to address his own cultural racism, his xenophobia, his tendencies to prefer a culture where the least among us are reduced to slavery, to help him profit more.
May 20, 2009 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink