Crying Wolf

Originally published on the AILA Leadership Blog

On August 20 John Morton, head of ICE, issued a memorandum to the agency about how to handle deportation cases involving foreign nationals who are also legally eligible to apply for green cards.  The policy has got the anti-immigrant restrictionists and their friends on Capitol Hill in a tizzy and howling about (what else?) back door amnesty.  It has also provided fresh anti-immigrant fodder for Fox News.

But the ICE memo represents a welcome (and all too rare) outbreak of common sense at the agency, not a back door amnesty program.  I would suggest that the restrictionists, politicians, and televised talking heads read the memo before incorrectly (and irresponsibly) claiming it authorizes the mass cancellation of deportations or directs the dismissal of deportation cases against dangerous criminals.

The truth is that the memo is quite limited in scope.  It affects only foreign nationals in deportation proceedings who are the beneficiaries of immigrant visa petitions, which, when processed,  will give them an immediate right to file for a green card.  Stated differently, the memo affects only people who can immigrate legally under existing laws--meaning they have otherwise played by the rules and waited their turn for a visa.

To suggest that the memo will lead to the dismissal of deportation cases against dangerous criminals, as some have charged, is ludicrous.  In fact, the memo directs that ICE attorneys "shall promptly consult with the Field Office Director (FOD) and Special Agent in Charge (SAC) to determine if there are any investigations or serious adverse factors weighing against dismissal of proceedings."  Adverse factors include criminal convictions, evidence of fraud or other criminal misconduct, and national security and public safety considerations.

I have never been shy about criticizing ICE when it is warranted.  But this memo, if implemented across the US, could go a long way toward reducing the tremendous backlogs that plague the immigration courts, and relieving overcrowding in the vast ICE detention system.  The memo represents an attempt to efficiently use  scarce law enforcement resources so the government can target for removal those who would do Americans harm--terrorists, violent criminals, drug traffickers, and alien smugglers.

It is stunning that the "just say no to sensible immigration policy" crowd, with Senator Grassley as their loudest cheerleader in Congress, once again cries wolf in the face of smart immigration enforcement.

Seneca County, Ohio

FAIR Should Send Texas State Representative Debbie Riddle On A Media Tour

What do you think?

Fernando's Hideaway

Originally posted on the AILA Leadership Blog.

By David Leopold, AILA President and Crystal Williams, AILA Executive Director

Washington reminds us Fernando Lamas, the Saturday Night Live character played by Billy Crystal who would interview various celebrities, often confusing them with someone else.  Always during the interview he would say, "You look mahvelous" and the sketch would end with, "It's better to look good than to feel good."

In Washington, it’s all about looking good too.  It doesn’t matter what the reality of any given situation might be.  All that matters is how it looks so that it can be packaged into a talking head sound bite and sold to the American public lock, stock, and barrel.

In the national “debate” on immigration, it’s all about looking good too.  It doesn’t matter if what is being said is accurate, or if what is being proposed is effective.  It only matters if someone notices you look tough on immigrants, even if what you propose or pass does nothing to fix our broken immigration system.

So we get a Senator once known for his integrity and thoughtfulness suddenly making up a phenomenon that doesn’t exist (“drop and leave”) and using it as a basis to argue that we ought to make stateless persons of innocent babies born in the U.S. to foreign nationals.  Then we get a group of Senators who only days ago stood for a comprehensive approach to immigration reform suddenly proposing—and passing—an enforcement-only measure that offers no solutions and accomplishes nothing more than adding to the national deficit.

In the meantime, we have approximately 11 million people, the vast majority of whom are here for no reason other than to better their lives and the lives of their families, living in the shadows and vulnerable to exploitation.  We have an over-taxed deportation system that can’t seem to figure out which way to turn.  We have a immigration detention apparatus in which 113 people have perished since 2003.  We have politicians all out-promising and under-delivering.  Nothing is fixed.  No progress is made.

It’s time to stop worrying about how it looks and start looking at how it works.  We know what needs to be done.  Now, will our so-called national leadership show a little courage and do it?  Or will they pretend, like Fernando did, that everything just looks “mahvelous”.

Who Doesn't Have Cojones?

Originally published on the AILA Leadership Blog

She’s going to do all that she can to continue down the litigation path to allow secure borders…Jan Brewer has the “cojones” that our president does not have to  look out for Americans, not just Arizonans, but all Americans, in this desire of ours to secure our borders and allow legal immigration to help build this country, as was the purpose of the immigration laws

Guess who said that? Who else but Sarah Palin!

The half-term—“I can serve the people of Alaska better on Fox News”—Governor of Alaska was on Fox News Sunday (where else?) talking about Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s losing court battle to revive the moribund S.B. 1070 “show me your papers” law.

Catchy sound bites, especially when made on the safety of a facebook page or in a Fox News studio, are pretty easy to construct.  It gets a little more difficult when you try to mix in facts.

Sarah Palin, Governor Jan Brewer, and others who claim Obama doesn’t have the “cojones” to enforce the immigration law may want to read yesterday’s TRAC Immigration Report.  According to the report “newly-released figures from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) show that during the first nine months of FY 2010, more non-US citizens were removed from the country than during any similar period in the Bush Administration.”  The report also shows that the “sharp increases in ICE detention and removal of non-U.S. citizens had been accomplished largely by catching noncitizens who had not committed any crimes in this country but who had either crossed the border illegally or had overstayed their visas.”  TRAC also reports a current shift in targeting to noncitizens who have committed crimes in this country.  ICE “has already broken all previous records, and climbed to an all-time high,” according to TRAC.  In fact, under Obama, the removal pace of criminal aliens is 60% higher than under the last year of the Bush administration.

To be sure, I have serious questions about whether ICE is actually engaging in smart enforcement.  Who is really being removed? Is ICE really focusing on terrorists, violent criminals, and drug dealers?  Or are they continuing to inflate the statistics by removing unfortunate folks that somehow got caught in the web of America’s dysfunctional immigration system?  And, like many others, I am also eagerly awaiting signs of significant improvements in the dysfunctional ICE detention apparatus which has claimed the lives of 113 immigrants since 2003.

Yet, to brazenly claim that Obama is soft on immigration enforcement is pure demagoguery.   But I guess speaking the truth takes “cojones.”