ImmigrationRepublican leaders to pursue immigration priorities different than Obama's
Incoming Republican congressional leaders have plans of their own for border and workplace enforcement; Obama says he still has hope for a path to citizenship for at least some illegal residents; incoming chairmen Peter King (House Homeland Security Committee) and Lamar Smith (House Judiciary Committee) say they have different priorities on immigration than the Obama administration
Mayday immigration reform rally // Source: gothamist.com
When Republican lawmakers take over the House and gain strength in the Senate after the new year, a decade-long drive to overhaul the immigration system and legalize some of the estimated eleven million undocumented migrants seems all but certain to come to a halt.
When New York Republican Peter T. King takes over the House Homeland Security Committee in January, he plans to propose legislation to reverse what he calls an “obvious lack of urgency” by the Obama administration to secure the border.
Among other initiatives, King wants to see DHS expand a program that enlists the help of local police departments in arresting suspected illegal immigrants.
Texas Republican Lamar Smith, who will have oversight over deportations and arrests when he takes the gavel as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was an author of 1996 legislation increasing penalties against illegal immigrants.
Called the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act and signed into law by President Clinton, the bill limited the discretion of U.S. immigration judges and increased the time that immigrants could be detained while awaiting a hearing.
As his first order of business, Smith plans to hold hearings about workplace enforcement and expanding the employee identification program, E-Verify, which is set to expire in 2012.
The Los Angeles Times reports that since President Obama took office in January 2009, DHS has focused on arresting and deporting illegal immigrants with criminal records. Under Obama, the total number of deportations is up, and the percentage of those deported who are considered a threat to public safety is at a record high.
Arrests of illegal workers at job sites are down, however, as the Obama administration focuses resources on fining and prosecuting employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. The goal is to reduce the demand for illegal labor (see “Under Obama: company audits up, illegal worker arrests way down,” 24 August 2010 HSNW; and “U.S. replaces noisy immigration raids at place of employment with ‘silent audits’,” 12 July 2010 HSNW).
Smith plans to attack Obama’s enforcement strategy. His staff is preparing to hold hearings to encourage more workplace raids and to investigate allegations that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials manipulated numbers to inflate the department’s criminal deportation statistics.
“We could free up millions of jobs for Americans and legal immigrants if we enforced our immigration laws against illegal workers,” Smith said.
King, whose committee will share jurisdiction on immigration issues, wants DHS to “aggressively go after private companies
