Officials Refuse To Budge On Deportation Of Students, Families

WASHINGTON -- Despite appeals from immigration reform advocates and some Congressional Democrats, the Obama administration will not block deportations of young people who grew up in the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Friday.

After the Senate voted down the DREAM Act, a bill that would allow legal status for some undocumented young people, immigrant rights groups have pushed for the Obama administration to use its executive authority to stop deporting those who would have benefited from the law.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and immigration reform groups announced yesterday a plan for a nationwide campaign to end deportation of DREAMers, as they have been coined, and of parents or spouses of American citizens. Current immigration law offers few options to those who want to stay in the United States to be with their families or because they have lived here since childhood. To receive legal status, those who entered the country illegally must return to their native country for 10 years to wait for a visa -- sometimes even longer -- separating them from family.

At an event sponsored by progressive think tank NDN, Napolitano said she was sympathetic to students who would have been eligible for the DREAM Act, but could not exempt them from deportation.

"I am not going to stand here and say that there are whole categories that we will, by executive fiat, exempt from the current immigration system, as sympathetic as we feel towards them," she said. "But I will say that group...are not the priority."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton echoed her statements, saying the administration cannot block deportations for certain groups. Still, with more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, Morton admitted his agency uses discretion "every day" to select how to police immigration. ICE can deport about 400,000 people per year with its current resources, Morton said.

"There are a lot of efforts underway to have good, sensible government in the absence of immigration reform, while stating at the same time that it is necessary," Morton said. "Everyone recognizes that we need a different system than we have now."

Advocates of expanded immigrant rights argue the agency's actions do not match its rhetoric, particularly over enforcement programs that are meant to target "the worst of the worst." The key immigration enforcement initiative, a finger-print sharing program called Secure Communities, is supposed to help ICE find undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes and may be a danger to others. But the program also nets a large number of undocumented immigrants who are never convicted of crimes, including women who call the police to report domestic violence or people who are brought in on charges that are later dropped.

About a quarter of the people in deportation proceedings due to Secure Communities are non-criminals, according to data analyzed by National Day Laborer Network, Center for Constitutional Rights and the Immigrant Justice Clinic at the Benjamin N. Cardoza School of Law.

Napolitano dismissed the figures, saying the numbers are "still early" and do not include people in prison who will later be deported under the program. She said over time the percentage of non-criminals would go down.

She added that some of the people who has not been convicted were in fact guilty of committing crimes, but law enforcement had chosen to give them time served and send them to Secure Communities rather than making a criminal charge.

"It looks like there was no crime committed, but when you go in and look at the arrest plot, why were they getting fingerprinted to begin with? There was a crime there," she said.

Chris Newman, legal director of the National Day Laborer Network, said the administration "has conflated criminality with undocumented status" and called the agency's response to potential racial profiling and civil liberties problems in the program "astonishingly insufficient."

"It sort of inverts the presumption of innocence when it comes to immigrants," Newman said. "There's no reason why people at the point of being booked should be screened for immigration status. If they were really serious about deporting only serious criminals, they would screen only after people had been convicted of a crime."

Napolitano said the agency is aware of the issue and has a civil rights unit dedicated to looking through data to make sure specific districts are not out of sync with overall enforcement trends.

"One of the things I want to make sure Secure Communities is not is a conduit for racial profiling or local law enforcement inappropriately seeking to be immigration officers," she said. "That's not what Secure Communities is designed to do."

Comments

[LouisPFreely]

11:53 PM on 04/05/2011

Despite appeals from immigration reform advocates and some Congressional Democrats, the Obama administration will not block deportations of young people who grew up in the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on Friday.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Viva Obama!

[Endotoxin]

11:27 AM on 04/04/2011

No point in deportation if you can't secure the border properly.

[ugly american]

02:35 AM on 04/04/2011

How does having broken the law make one no longer subject to it?

Millions of people all over the world go through our system legally to come to this country every year. Many have to wait long periods of time for that privilege. They follow our laws and they earn the right to live and work in the United States.

Yet millions more believe that the laws should not apply to them and enter illegally every year. If the laws that apply to everyone else are applied to them then those laws and their enforcers must be racist and are applied just because of the color of their skin.

They say the laws have nothing to do with the fact that they are here illegally.
But it is really not color. It only has to do with nationality and citizenship.
If most of the illegal foreigners were from somewhere besides Mexico and another race than Hispanic, would we still hear that America was just prejudiced? The laws would still apply to them.

One cannot ask for justice for their people when they are in the same breath demanding special privileges for them that other citizens and immigrants do not enjoy.
Justice is following the same laws as everyone else, not to be excused from them because they had the nerve to break them.
But that is exactly what America is being asked. There is no sense of fairness in that.

[StrawHat]

07:41 AM on 04/04/2011

Exactly. I keep telling them, "I don't care if it's the Swedish Bikini Team -- if they're here illegally, I want them on the next plane OUT of here." Period. End of story.

The unfairness of it, when others wait years to legally immigrate, is appalling.

[Picosa]

09:19 PM on 04/04/2011

Thing is our BROKEN IMMIGRATION LAWS only ask that the, Swedish Bikini Team and people from other select European countries (27 to be exact) get on a plane and show a passport when they get here. For the people of those 27 countries the process of securing a passport to come to the U.S. is about the same as it is for U.S. citizen to go to their countries. Easy as pie.

For Cubans the only requirement is that they risk their lives in boats and make it to dry U.S. soil to be given an automatic pathway to citizenship.

For Mexicans that have a spouse, or parent who is a legal permanent resident, (green card holder), or U.S. citizen, the process to become legal takes up to 20 years. For the majority of Hispanics below our southern border there is no legal way to come here.

OR

Our BROKEN IMMIGRATION LAWS allow Mexicans without proper documentation to be lured here by Americans with a job offer, . Our broken immigration system then allows them to work, get married, have children, buy a house, set down roots in this country but does not provide a way for them to fix their immigration status. Then years later these broken laws allow that American families be ripped apart by the deportation of family members.

apples to oranges......

[Picosa]

01:53 AM on 04/04/2011

The word illegal.

It’s a dirty little secret but the first illegal aliens in Texas came from Tennessee. Stephen Austin, the father of Anglo Texas, received permission in 1823 to bring “300 families” into the Tejas province after years of wrangling with the Mexican government. By that time, tens of thousands more Anglo squatters had moved into the region. These illegal immigrants, mostly from Tennessee, thumbed their noses at the Mexican government when asked to leave – or at least pay their taxes. So let’s not get too high on our horses about “illegal immigrants.” We’ve been there and done that.

In fact, the group most vocal about enforcing our immigration laws, the so-called Tea Partiers got its name from an event that was illegal and defied the law. In 1773, a group of colonists in Boston boarded three English merchant ships and dumped the tea they carried into the harbor, the so-called "Boston Tea Party."

More law breaking which we revere today was perpetrated by British citizens who openly disobeyed the laws of Parliament and king, refused to pay taxes, and formed an insurgent army in 1776. Ironically, today’s self-styled patriots who have taken it upon themselves to protect our borders from the illegal hordes call themselves The Minutemen.

[TheJibreelaMonsters]

03:24 AM on 04/04/2011

what does this have to do with today again?

[StrawHat]

07:38 AM on 04/04/2011

He's trying to convince us that we shouldn't have the rule of law, just like good old Juarez. We'll just all do whatever we want, to heck with representative democracy, the heck with our Constitution, to heck with "one man, one vote", to heck with We the People. If he and his buddies want to flagrantly break all of our laws, we should smile and cheer and hand them a beer and tell them how brave and "free" they are. Something like that. Sigh.

[Endotoxin]

11:29 AM on 04/04/2011

It's absolutely relevant today when you have a party of GOPers calling upon voices of the past (Tea party/Minute men) and prancing around making believe they are fighting for American freedoms.

[Norski]

11:04 AM on 04/04/2011

To "Picosa" - Ever hear of the Coahuiltecan and Karankawa? Both were Native American Nations inhabited and thrived in south Texas before the arrival of those who became the new rulers of what is now Mexico. Those rulers presided over the destruction of these Native American Nations. Today, these poor Native American Nations are considered extinct. Meanwhile today 88% of those who call themselves "Mexicans and their descendents" are either partially or wholly descended from peoples who came from outside of the Americas, primarily from Europe. So who is really the Illegal Immigrant here? It is a sad irony that the descendants of those same rulers who destroyed the Coahuiltecan, Karankawa and others and made them extinct now claim them as brothers. But I guess that it is easy to claim entitlement to their historic lands since they are no longer around to complain.

[Picosa]

11:15 PM on 04/04/2011

I don't know where you got your 88% from.

Mexico’s National Institute of Genomic Medicine, which recently concluded a 2-year study of the Mexican genome, investigating blood samples from a representative sample of Mexicans, half male and half female. The project’s director was Dr. Gerardo Jimenez-Sanchez.

Roughly speaking, the Mexican population was calculated to be 65 percent indigenous and 35 percent non-indigenous (European, African, Asian).

http://mexidata.info/id1442.ht...

You seem to think the Spanish were the only ones to blame for the disappearance of entire Native American Indian Nations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X9tEQqCpew&feature=related

[WannettaC]

01:08 AM on 04/04/2011

It's not about being the "worst of the worst", it's about the word "illegal". No one should be in this country illegally. It's against the law!

[Picosa]

08:20 PM on 04/03/2011

What's happening to this country is not the fault of immigrants -- legal or illegal. They are not the enemy. It's another way the rich use their perverted definition of patrotism and con the Teabaggers, xenophobics and Know-Nothings to bust their butt to split Americans warring amongst ourselves instead of turning our wrath on them.

Our ancestors didn't need to wait for 20 years to get a green card to come here -- they got on a boat signed in at Ellis Island and were good to go. You cannot expect the richest country in the world to be smack up against one of the poorest, have an illegal war/land grab in their mutual history, stick the Statue of Liberty at the entrance to the busiest harbor in the hemisphere and brag on it continuously, and then set up free trade instead of fair trade and other globalization policies that benefit only the oligarchy - not to mention numerous wars that do the same -- and then blame other countries because their poor want to go where they have some chance of a decent life and then blame them for everything that's wrong here.

You want to punish who's actually to blame for our problems -- start on Wall Street, Congress and White House the last 5 administrations, Big Business, lobbyists etc. Don't start at the very bottom because it's easy and popular and the people are powerless. Start with the @ss ho.les who brag "we don't go to jail."

[StrawHat]

11:42 PM on 04/03/2011

"Split Americans warring among ourselves"???

Illegal aliens are not Americans. They're foreign nationals -- many of them criminals -- who have a destabilizing, wage suppressing, union busting effect in the U.S. They are one part of the cluster-truck labeled "Why Does America Have a Shrinking Middle Class?" '

Illegal immigration, neoconservative obsession with enabling the rich while crushing unions, unbridled greed among the top 1% who think they should control the government while not paying anything close to their fair share of taxes, neoconservative obsession with deregulation of banking and the gambling parlor known as Wall Street, etc. -- these are all part of the same inexorable push by the right to change the U.S. into an oligarchy.

In the right-wing utopia, any rich person who wants to can hire from a nearly unlimited pool of dirt-cheap labor, order them to work long hours with little pay and no benefits -- with no fear of unionization or government over-sight or regulation -- polluting at will -- without paying any taxes -- raking in the money hand over fist -- building themselves gated communities with golden palaces, security guards to keep out the riff-raff - with obedient, subservient gardeners, nanny's and maids to do all their dirty work for them, no complaints, no questions asked.

If you want an oligarchy in America, keep creating sanctuary cities and committees to prevent the enforcement of laws against illegal immigration. You're playing right into their hands.

[sibyl9]

12:36 AM on 04/04/2011

Well said F& F!

[Picosa]

03:00 AM on 04/04/2011

Re, "Illegal aliens are not Americans."

Most migrants from below our southern border are Native Americans.
~
Re, "They're foreign nationals "

So were your ancestors and they were made US citizens as soon as they got off the boat.
It's not the migrants fault they're not given same opportunity your ancestors were given. Blame corporations and Republicans for that.
~
Re, "many of them criminals --"

Fact, very few of them are criminals. Safest cities in America have high migrant populations.

Numerous studies by independent researchers and government commissions over the past 100 years repeatedly and consistently have found that, in fact, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes or to be behind bars than are the native-born. This is true for the nation as whole, as well as for cities with large immigrant populations such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Miami, and cities along the U.S.-Mexico border such as San Diego and El Paso.

http://reason.com/archives/2009/07/06/the-el-paso-miracle
~
Re, "who have a destabiliz­ing, wage suppressin­g, union busting effect in the U.S. They are one part of cluster-tr­uck labeled "Why Does America Have a Shrinking Middle Class?"

Blame Republicans who refuse to do the job of fixing broken immigration laws. Republicans have thrown middle class under the bus. Migrants want the same things middle class does. Migrants 'better life' has been stolen by American corporations and Republicans who support them. That's why migrants come here.

[dtairtime]

11:40 AM on 04/04/2011

Yes our ancestors didn't have to wait or do much to be citizens but just show up. Of course there are those who were turned away for little to no reason too right at Ellis.

Times were different then.
We had about 50 million people, not 310 million.
We had no taxpayer provided goodies, medical, food, housing, etc.
We had no worries about wastewater.
We didn't worry about landfills.
We didn't have a lot of states facing water shortages.


As for us being next top Mexico. They have so much, including a pretty good economy with less unemployment then us. They have abundant natural resources that we don't have that can support lots more people then us. They have a great coastline. They also have a two class society that WE don't want them to bring here with their high birth rates, low education and tolerance for crime/fraud/etc.

Every one of us who you are against want and scream for e-verify so employers can go to jail. You fight us.
Every one of use want the chambers of commerce to stop influencing politicians. You fight us.
Every one of us wants the end of the rewards/incentives for illegals/ You fight us.

[Picosa]

11:24 PM on 04/04/2011

And everything they have is controlled by us because we elect their presidents for them. Those corrupt presidents are elected by U.S. interests so everything Mexico has can be used by us in exchange for power and money.

quote:
The 2012 presidenti­al campaign is already underway..­. in Mexico.
And, as in previous Mexican elections, US interests are all over it like a cheap suit.
The truth is Washington has always meddled in Mexican presidenti­al elections.

http://reflexioneslibertarias.blogspot.com/2010/08/nntv-al-gores-mexican-adventure.html

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/07/341919.shtml

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/07/342179.shtml

documentries
The War on Democracy(2007)
Journalist and documentarian John Pilger focuses on the ambivalent role played by the United States in promoting Latin American democracy, suggesting that American leaders have often favored oppressive regimes over more democratic alternatives. Pilger outlines the last five decades of political manipulation by the CIA and other U.S. agencies, focusing in particular on recent efforts to unseat the populist Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

The End of Poverty?(2008)
Exploring the history of poverty in developing countries, filmmaker Philippe Diaz contends that today's economic inequities arose as a result of colonization, military conquest and slavery, with wealthier countries seizing the resources of the poor. Narrated by Martin Sheen, this absorbing documentary includes interviews with numerous historians, economists and sociologists who shed light on the ongoing conditions that contribute to poverty.

[AmericanMark]

04:23 PM on 04/03/2011

Most of these so-called "DREAMers" have already had an education they couldn't pay for in Mexico, or the other Latin American countries. And the quality of that education doesn't even matter, it's the fact that we've paid for it. Try sneaking into Mexico, Honduras, or Nicaragua and just try demanding things like free education - and for it to be provided in English, no less. See how far you get without getting smacked around, robbed, then dumped at the front door of the American embassy.

[Fran Jaime]

06:16 PM on 04/03/2011

I happen to know Americans who live in Mexico, work here, pay no taxes and send their children to public schools, with no retaliation. They live peacefully and their kids grow up bi-culturally.

[AmericanMark]

07:51 PM on 04/03/2011

So your friends snuck into Mexico for the economic advantages (cartel violence aside). Interesting. And they get taught in SSL (Spanish as a Second Language). Wow. Almost unbelievable.

[dtairtime]

12:06 AM on 04/04/2011

Really?

I call baloney.

Why would anyone go there illegally from here? Unless they are wanted for some crime in which case they don't count anymore then the illegals here do and should be kicked out at first opportunity along with fining/jailing anyone who helps or hires them.

[Fran Jaime]

06:18 PM on 04/03/2011

Forgot to add, Mexico is a large country. There is one American embassy. If someone should rob you, smack you around, etc, I really don't think they take your body all the way to the embassy to dump.

[bkurpnovus]

02:53 PM on 04/03/2011

The Mexican citizens that attempt to cross the US border are doing more harm to their own country then ours. Look at the courage it takes to cross the border. The constant harassment they must endure. Being ever vigilant to keep from being captured. Isn’t the courage displayed, risk taking behavior- similar to the entrepreneurs and activists that could change Mexico? What if these persons stayed in Mexico and forced a government to come into power that is free of the corruption that has stifled the growth of a robust economy. Instead of being the job creators and political activists to bring change, it is easier to escape the problems by coming into the US illegally. If we sealed the border and the only hope for a better life was for these individuals to stay and potentially bring into being a legitimate government, there would not be the desire to leave families and expose themselves to the risk of an illegal crossing. Look at what is happening in the Middle-East. The people are fighting and forcing change, at great personal risk, to bring into being a decent life free of oppression. Seal the border and support any effort to change a corrupt system of government to one that allows personal freedom and the growth of an economy that eliminates the desire to escape to America.

[Picosa]

08:14 PM on 04/03/2011

The way to force change in countries below our southern border must began here in the U.S. The same war on the middle class that is happening here in the U.S. has been perpetrated by the same people, on those who live in countries below our southern border for many years.

quote:
The 2012 presidenti­al campaign is already underway..­. in Mexico.
And, as in previous Mexican elections, US interests are all over it like a cheap suit.
The truth is Washington has always meddled in Mexican presidenti­al elections.

http://reflexioneslibertarias.blogspot.com/2010/08/nntv-al-gores-mexican-adventure.html

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/07/341919.shtml

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/07/342179.shtml

documentries
The War on Democracy
Journalist, documentarian John Pilger focuses on the ambivalent role played by United States in promoting Latin American democracy, suggesting that American leaders have often favored oppressive regimes over more democratic alternatives. Pilger outlines the last five decades of political manipulation by the CIA and other U.S. agencies, focusing in particular on recent efforts to unseat the populist Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

The End of Poverty?Progress vs. Property
Exploring the history of poverty in developing countries, filmmaker Philippe Diaz contends today's economic inequities arose as result of colonization, military conquest and slavery, with wealthier countries seizing the resources of the poor. Narrated by Martin Sheen, this absorbing documentary includes interviews with numerous historians, economists, sociologists who shed light on the ongoing conditions that contribute to poverty.

[Norski]

12:30 AM on 04/05/2011

Actually, stopping Illegal Immigration is the real answer. If you truly believe we reached full employment in 2007 (which we did not) then all Americans were working (that's why it's called full employment) and we had to import 7.5 million Illegal Immigrants to fill our extra jobs. What if we instead placed those 7.5 million jobs where those people lived?

Let’s look at Mexico as an example of what could have been had Illegal Immigrants never entered the USA and we had reached that magical full employment. Per the Pew Hispanic Center six million Mexicans illegally immigrated to the USA, over three million of which are working. Per the CIA World Fact Book the 2006 GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of Mexico was $741.5 billion and the Labor Force numbered 38 million. That means the average GDP per working person was $19,513.

If USA Business had placed these three million jobs in Mexico and paid the average GDP rate ($9.38/hr.) and the six million Illegal Immigrants stayed home we would have pumped $59 billion in wages into the Mexican economy. In the USA economy approximately 57% of our GDP is made up of wages. Assuming this same job multiplier for Mexico means $59 billion in wages have would increased the GDP of Mexico by more that $103 billion or 14%. And the GDP of the USA would increase by as much a $5 billion with repatriated profits. Illegal Immigration killed this is a win-win situation.

[Angelus2007]

01:52 PM on 04/03/2011

So, Rep Guitierrez wants to not deport children and spouses of citizens. So someone comes here illegally and has a kid they get to stay. Woohoo!!! Way to go and circumvent our laws.

[JDZSB]

12:14 PM on 04/03/2011

This is what happens when there is no "real" border security because the federal government has a pseudo-open borders policy and continues to cave to the liberals in this country when dealing with the immigration problem. This was not the plan. When Reagan granted the amnesty to immigrants, it was under the premise that we would control the onslaught of immigrants coming into the country, but it has actually increased to the level where illegals are costing this country almost $500 Billion a year, and growing. We need some grown ups to get a handle on our immigration policy and border security and that means we need to change most of the current players in Washington (like Napilatano, Holder, Obama, et al.).

[Viper1st]

12:53 PM on 04/03/2011

Arizona officials are stating that the BHO Adm DOJ is telling them to "chase only" & not arrest illegals crossing the border into the USA ~

http://www.examiner.com/immigration-reform-in-national/now-we-may-know-why-border-arrests-are-down-arizona-sheriff-tells-all?CID=examiner_alerts_article

[Soule23]

01:44 PM on 04/03/2011

Griping about "BHO" does not do much to dispel the notion that your extreme anti-immigrant agenda is motivated by anything other than petty_racism.

[Norski]

05:33 PM on 04/03/2011

To Soule23 - Those people who pursue an "extreme anti-immigration agends" are a tiny minority. Most people who want our immigration laws enforced are victims of illegal immigration caused job loss. Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment Report of April 1, 2011:

Construction and extraction occupations = 20.3% Unemployment
Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations = 20.4% Unemployment
Production occupations = 11.7% Unemployment
Transportation, material moving occupations = 12.8% Unemployment
Service occupations = 10.2% Unemployment

Total Unadjusted US Unemployed Citizens and Legal Residents = 14,060,000
This figure and the above rates exclude 6,250,000 Persons who want a job but are left out of the above statistics for various reasons.
Total Number of Americans Looking for Work = 20,310,000
Plus that means the real unemployment rates for the occupations above are actually 44% larger when you include the excluded people.

Pew Center estimates indicate 7.5 million Illegal Immigrants work in the USA with the majority employed in agriculture, office and house cleaning, construction, and food preparation. These professions are where the worst unemployment is for us Americans.

Meanwhile Management, professional, and related occupations where few Illegal Immigrants work have a 4.3% Unemployment rate.

In fact Illegal Immigration has devastated our Citizen and Legal Resident workforce. If all Illegal Immigrants left tomorrow there would be almost three US Citizens and Legal Residents competing for every job previously held by an Illegal Immigrant. Facts from our own government show this picture very clearly.

[StrawHat]

01:22 PM on 04/03/2011

Bush, Cheney, Hastert, Stevens, McConnell, Frist and Lott et al didn't do any better.

[Richie MuadDib]

11:08 AM on 04/03/2011

I'm torn on this issue. On one hand, undocumented workers suppress wages (and if they have US Citizen kids, they get to money from the taxpayers, enabling them to work for less then minimum wage)

On the other hand, if you allow the manufacturing jobs to freely cross the border, and the products from those jobs to freely cross the border, then why are we not allowing humans to cross the border?

Most people's complaints about illegal immigrants is the drain on our social safety net, but that is a State issue, not a Federal issue. Each state could require that before a minor US citizen can receive welfare, a US citizen must have legal guardianship.

But I'm guessing that the welfare bill from "illegals" is pretty low compared to the economic boost we get from their US citizen kids who will likely live and work in the US until they get Social Security: paying income tax, sales tax, property tax.

[Viper1st]

12:40 PM on 04/03/2011

Social safety net ~

The first 26 weeks of unemployment is a state issue, some states it's only 20 weeks

The Federal Gov't (U.S. Taxpayer) picks up the balance of unemployment via Emergency Assistance for those U.S. Citizens out of work for an extended period of time ~ 2011 estimated at $60 billion a year

Side note ~ $60 billion a year to maintain unemployment assistance for 14.1 million U.S. Citizens, while 8 million of the illegal foreign nationals are working U.S. jobs illegally

[Richie MuadDib]

09:32 PM on 04/03/2011

That's a fair point, but the illegals are usually doing jobs that US Citizens are not applying for; and not sure how we estimate 8M illegals working here.
As Greg Giraldo said, have you ever lost a job opportunity to an illegal? I would guess dishwashing/busing, lawn maintenance, and unlicensed trade-work are the front runners for illegal positions.
ICE does worksite enforcement where they show up at locations and demand to see the I-9's, then fine the employers.

[randyjet]

10:57 AM on 04/03/2011

If the person who is arrested and booked for any offense is truly innocent of any crime, their fingerprints will NOT be in the data base. You cannot get fingerprints out of thin air and in order for them to be there, they have to have been arrested before This is VERY appropriate since ICE fingerprints all of the illegals that they catch before sending them back. The majority of illegals have been arrested at least once for illegal entry, and thus simply being in the US again makes them FELONS!

There have been many illegals who have been wanted for more serious crimes such as murder, ID theft, etc having been caught thanks to Secure Communities. They were arrested for traffic violations and other lesser crimes, and had their prints run, and were nailed.

As for Hispanics all being outraged at the deportations, that is a small, vocal minority in that community. If you think that more Hispanics means more Democrats, I refer you to the rejection of Rep. Ortiz in a 70% Hispanic district in Texas along the border. He lost to an Anglo by the name of Farenthold who has a tough anti-illegal platform. If a guy who had served in Congress for many decades can lose to an Anglo in such a district, the pro-amnesty folks are in deep trouble. Most Mexican Americans know from personal experience that THEY are the ones who are hurt the most by illegals.

[Ravenlea]

12:36 PM on 04/03/2011

I'm not a felon but my fingerprints are on the data base because I tempted at a bank 30 years ago. People get finger printed when they are arrested, whether they are guilty or not, so someone's fingerprints could be on record simply because they had been picked up on another occasion and not been guilty then either, particularly in neighborhoods where racial profiling is popular.

[modernman55]

02:52 AM on 04/03/2011

Its as if no one is seriously taking into account the growing political status of minorities, especially Hispanics, who these polices offend and isolate.

[StrawHat]

04:38 AM on 04/03/2011

IF deporting illegal aliens offends Hispanic Americans, then they need to do a gut-check on their loyalties and priorities. Here's how to go about it:

Ask yourself this question: "If there were 10 million illegal immigrants here from Mongolia, instead of Mexico and Central America, and all the other facts were the same, how would you feel about it? Be honest. If the radio stations in an entire region of the U.S. were being bought up by Mongolians, if 60% of the children in your district spoke only a Mongolian dialect on their first day of kindergarten -- hardly a word of English (much less Spanish), if the skilled trades were being over-run with illegals from Mongolia, if you were standing in line at the bank or restaurants in your neighborhood and everyone but you in the line was speaking a Mongolian dialect, if you and your family couldn't find jobs because of all the illegal Mongolians who were willing to work for half your customary wage, if there were violent Mongolian gangs engaging in every kind of crime, from dealing drugs to human trafficking to forced prostitution to identity theft to insurance fraud, if the nation's politics were being manipulated by a Mongolian illegal immigrant avalanche, completely removing Hispanic culture, Hispanic pride, Hispanic food, language, music and babies from the picture? What would you think?

Be brutally honest with yourself.

[stillbarbi]

10:39 AM on 04/03/2011

Now you be brutally honest. Who let the illegal immigrants in, and why hasn't immigration reform legislation been passed? Don't tell me our government couldn't keep them out. The government hasn't wanted to keep them out, because corporations and other employers love cheap labor, and spend lots of money lobbying politicians to make sure the cheap labor pool, which also oppresses wages for our citizens, doesn't disappear.

Our immigration laws have not been enforced because of greed, and now those who struggle to come here in pursuit of a better life are being demonized. Some risk their lives to get here, many are desperate, and most are willing to work hard to support their families. To stereotype an entire segment of the population is irrational and wrong.

Many other countries control their borders, and there is no doubt we could do the same if we chose to. Cheap labor is such a precious commodity for the greedy, that even after 911, we haven't had a secure border. If our government really wanted to keep them out, it would.

[Norski]

06:36 PM on 04/03/2011

Stillbarbi & TrueEngineHearing - Here is a novel idea - let's blame the people who broke the law for breaking the law - Employers and Illegal Immigrants alike.

If anybody “invited” people to illegally immigrate to the USA it was people who wanted to exploit them. Per the Pew Center and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the 7.5 million people residing in the USA and working illegally are employed in the same professions where most of the 20 million currently unemployed Americans used to work. Do you seriously believe the 20 million unemployed Americans “invited” people to come to the USA illegally?

Harvard Economist George Borjas stated, "In dragging down wages, immigration currently shifts about $160 billion per year from workers to employers." The Rich get richer and the Poor get poorer. Do you seriously believe that the Poor “invited” people to illegally come to the USA so that they can make a mad dash to the poverty line?

Unemployment insurance and welfare paid to 7.5 million people who are unemployed while 7.5 million people work illegally in the USA costs Taxpayers than $100 billion per year. And that does not count the other costs engendered by illegal immigration. Do you seriously think the poor Taxpayer who is paying the bill for this “invited” people to enter the USA illegally?

The only ones who “invited” people to come illegally to the USA are exploitive employers and people who want to use them for political power. We are the victims.

[dtairtime]

12:17 AM on 04/04/2011

Oh so the plan would be since Hispanics, may or may not be gaining in numbers we should permit them unfettered immigration and they don't have to abide by our laws.

[mikesw]

12:38 AM on 04/03/2011

I am impressed with the self-righteousness and emotionality on this board. Illegal immigration is a serious issue. Why not treat it as such?

[stillbarbi]

10:55 AM on 04/03/2011

Because our government hasn't treated it as a serious issue. The government has allowed the flow of illegal immigrants to continue for the benefit of corporations and employers who want cheap labor. We exploit them, use them until we're done with them, and send them home as criminals.

A country that can send astronauts to the Moon and beyond, keep it's airlines safe for passengers, and hit strategic targets with our missiles, could control the flow of immigrants coming across our border if it wanted to. We can't afford it? Why isn't money an issue when it comes to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya? That's because those conflicts increase corporate profits. It's a matter of priorities. We have money for whatever benefits corporations, but conveniently can't afford anything that would cut into their profits.

Corporations and the wealthy have been on a mission to erode labor rights for decades. Illegal labor pools drive down wages for everyone. It's part of the plan, which has been stepped up lately by Republicans passing legislation to take away wages, benefits, and collective bargaining rights from workers.

Look at the big picture and you will see, the illegal immigrants are not the problem.

[gammik64]

11:41 PM on 04/02/2011

I'm impressed that she feels this way.