By Suman Raghunathan
Could the nation's undocumented immigrants please stand up? The government will be happy to deport you.
In a move that speaks to the bind policymakers find themselves in these days on the issue of immigration -- jostled between the complexity of the issue, its deep politicization and the lack of vision Washington leaders have brought to the topic in the post 9/11 era -- the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) will encourage the nation's roughly 12 million undocumented immigrants to simply volunteer to turn themselves into immigration authorities for deportation in the coming months.
ICE Director Julie Myers leaked the new federal effort on Univision this past Sunday at the end of an interview with Jorge Ramos, the anchor of the popular public affairs show "Al Punto" and in advance of an anticipated formal announcement next week.
Entitled "Operation Scheduled Departure," the still-unannounced program would allow undocumented immigrants without criminal records to turn themselves in at Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices nationwide. In exchange for "self-deporting," the immigrants would be processed and get a few weeks to pack their belongings and get their affairs in order before leaving the country -- without being put in a detention facility.
The program does not provide any other incentive for undocumented immigrants to volunteer to leave the country through the program.
What's interesting is Myers' announcement of the program on national television to only Univisión. There have been no other announcements about the program to the mainstream media from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the enforcement arm of the Department of Homeland Security responsible for deporting undocumented immigrants.
The Houston Chronicle picked up on the Al Punto news segment but was unable to get comments on the policy from ICE or Department of Homeland Security officials in San Antonio, Dallas, and Washington, D.C.
In her interview with Ramos, Myers noted that ICE deported approximately 274,000 undocumented immigrants last year, an agency record.
Myers' announcement comes on the heels of a wave of controversial immigration raids nationwide, and is reportedly in response to comments from immigrants in deportation proceedings who said they would prefer to "self-deport" rather than be confined in federal detention centers. A national debate on federal deportation policies was sparked in particular by a May 2008 raid in Postville, Iowa, which was the largest single immigration enforcement action in the nation's history and rounded up nearly 400 undocumented meatpacking plant workers. Testimony from Erik Camayd-Freixas, a federally appointed interpreter for many of the immigrants and a Florida International professor, sparked questions about immigrants’ due process in the proceedings.
Immigrant rights and immigrant restrictionist groups alike scoffed at the plan's impracticality, noting that many undocumented immigrants have family roots in the U.S., including children who are American citizens.
"Just when you thought the Bush Administration would ride quietly into the sunset, along comes another harebrained scheme that can't have been carefully thought out. We are not going to deport our way out of our current immigration mess, nor is it likely that most or even many of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants here will choose to leave on their own," said Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum in a press release.
Read more at Feet in 2 Worlds, where this piece originally appeared.
Our immigration system and programs - absolutely incoherent.
What happens to a country when half or more of its, young, productive, predominantly male workers leave the country to work somewhere else? Wouldn't the better solution be to stay and help grow the economy at home??
(I saw a recent documentary where many of the family members left behind refuse to do the menial jobs available in the home country, because they live well enough on the checks from the US and don't have to work. If that's true, than coming north is counterproductive for those families.)
Also, what happens in the "host" country when it has legions of unidentifiable young (under 30), men, largely uneducated, many unmarried, with too few women to accommodate them, roaming about after work--or with no work? I'm trying not to suggest anything here, but are we setting ourselves up for disaster?
I could go on--but I won't, because I'm struggling with this......
But my main concern, besides obvious security issues, is identity theft? Those fake SSN numbers, drivers licences, birth certificates, etc. could be your identity or mine. And a few may have malicious intentions, not just getting a job at Walmart. How do you know?
This is a serious.
You've stolen our:
political system
legal system
economic system
religion
language
children
history
land
continent
and have just left us to rot.
and now you are our victims?
thanks.
Apparently, that represents no opportunity cost for you.
Bad news (for you), Mexicans are sending money to their relatives here in the U.S. to keep them afloat until the economy improves.
We have been roaming this land for 20 thousand years.
And long after the Euros are gone we will still be here.
Only grade school is "free" in the United States. It is paid for by the taxpayer.
In Mexico, the same education costs 70 cents per child per year.
Health care? Give blood and the health care is "free" in Mexico.
If you are insinuating that undocumented migrant Meso Americans do not pay taxes in the United States then you are mistaken.
Diesel fuel in Mexico is HALF the price of here.
I can fulltime w/my truck camper for 6 months for the same price as staying here in El Paso.......
loading the laptop with lots of ITunes free podcasts of Spanish Lessons.
Hasta la vista baby.
The issue is exploitation. I'm a naturalized citizen.
It has now advertized fear and blame on others less tennacious in making money, without considering morality, ethics or the long term negative effects on America.
ICE must be de-funded and abolished. ICE reminds me of the SS in the 1930's Germany.
Love and honor all people as your brother and sister and we will all get what we need.
Hey, if its money, stop "war incorpoated"
Something tells me Bisbee is going to Obama. You can just smell it in the air outside historic taverns.
Its not the money that drives anti-immigrant crowd to hate and blame others, but rather ignorance about the bankruptcy of out commonwealth; about the corporate greed and neocon wars that kill and drain our resources while the rich get richer while the rights of everyone go to hell.
The "millions who went thru the process legally" only had to stand in line for a few months. Not so Canadians or Mexicans.
You dont have a clue what you're talking about.
If they wanna come here via legit methods, they can get in line like everybody else, and like how our forefathers did over the centuries.
My deepest sentiments are those you just conveyed. I know many great people in the US feel the same as you - and I. It is gratifying that others feel the same weight of a machine out of our seeming control.
The greedy corporate and government "leaders" must be brought to acknowledge there cowardess, in lieu of the rationalization that must occur in depriving equal protection under the laws of this once great nation to all people - We the People- and irrespective of color, money, status, religion, or where we are from and live. If the trend continues change will be demanded and how these demands WILL be met is another question for thought.