By the time he leaves office, President Barack Obama will have deported more immigrants than any other US president; his administration is already close to having removed some two million people from the US, as many as George W. Bush did in two full terms.
So when Obama declared last week that his administration would review its deportation policy out of “deep concern” (said his press secretary) for “the pain too many families feel from the separation that comes from our broken immigration system,” the announcement was long overdue.
But if Obama is serious about creating a more “humane immigration system,” he could start by being straightforward about his administration’s enforcement priorities.
For years, the Obama administration has said that its deportation policy is focused on removing those who represent a clear risk to national security or public safety, or recent border crossers with only shallow roots in the US. But the numbers tell a different story. Almost a quarter of the “criminal aliens” deported in 2012 had convictions not for serious offenses, but for immigration crimes such as illegal entry or re-entry, which until fairly recently were largely treated as civil offenses, not criminal ones. What’s more, a significant number of these “criminals” and “recent border crossers” are trying to reunite with their families in the US, something that federal programs like Operation Streamline, which allows for mass criminal prosecution, do not take into consideration.
Even those with other criminal convictions are too often deported under a one-size-fits-all policy, without a fair hearing before a judge, who might be able to consider their family ties and roots in the US.
By granting a reprieve to immigrants brought to the US as children through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Obama in 2012 took an important step toward bringing the US immigration system closer in line with human rights principles. The question of whether or not he has the authority to expand the program itself should not be an excuse for failing to do what is indisputably within his authority – revising his own administration’s policies and programs to reduce the number of people forced through a broken system of unfair detention and deportation.
