• Obama uses executive power to changes immigration policy

    President Barack Obama is using executive power to tackle the country’s immigration issues while Congress makes little progress on immigration overhaul. The president issued executive orders prohibiting deportations of individuals who arrived in the United States illegally as children, individuals who care for children, and individuals who have no criminal records. Recently, some relatives of military service members living in the country illegally have been allowed to remain in the country as a way to lessen stress on the military and reward veterans.

  • Local enforcement of immigration law does not achieve intended goals

    A new study found that when local law enforcement agencies begin to inquire immigrants about their immigration status, some immigrants relocate within the United States but few go back relocate to their home country. Those who move to other states tend to be educated – and legally in the United States. The only exception is Arizona’s Maricopa County — which made a name for itself owing to Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s controversial approach to immigration policies — where immigrants are likely to leave the country, perhaps due to unusually intense enforcement and a short distance to the border.

  • House panel charges DHS overstates deportation figures

    A House committee says the administration inflates the number of illegal aliens it has deported in 2011 and 2012; the committee says the administration is able to cite larger numbers of deportees by including numbers from the Alien Transfer Exit Program (ATEP) in the administration’s year-end removal numbers; if the number of ATEP-removed individuals is subtracted from ICE-deported individuals, then the annualized number of deportees in 2011 and 2012 would lower – rather than higher – than the number of deportees in 2008 and 2009

  • Deportation deferment executive order to cost between $467 million and $585 million

    On 15 June the administration issues an executive order deferring deportation against illegal immigrants who were brought into the United States as kids by their parents, and who now go to school or have graduated from school; illegal aliens eligible to apply can begin to do so in August, and DHS estimates that in the first year of the program, about a million or so would do so; the processing cost would be as high as $585 million; each applicant will be expected to pay $465 in paperwork processing fee, but even if all do, there will be a shortfall

  • Obama and Romney stopped talking about immigration until the Democrats dropped the Dream Bomb

    The 15 June announcement by DHS secretary Janet Napolitano of an executive order which, in effect, implements the Dream Act, gives the 2008 presidential election the appearance of offering a discussion of immigration issues; the fact remains, though, that since  the Immigration and Reform Act (IRCA) of 1986, both parties studiously avoided a serious debate of the issue during presidential campaigns; democracy is a messy form of government, and few other topics are as messy and convoluted as U.S. immigration policy, but both political parties are wrong to avoid a broad public discussion of this vital national issue

  • The changes to the U.S. deportation policy

    Last Friday, 15 June 2012, DHS announced what analysts regard as the most significant immigration action in more than two decades; the executive action aims to stop – or defer — the deportation of undocumented youth; individuals cannot yet file for consideration for deferred action under the new policy until the protocols and procedures are announced, which DHS must do within sixty days

  • Critics slam administration’s “minor offenses” deportation stance

    Critics if the administration’s immigration policies slam the administration’s last week announcement that it will no longer initiate enforcement actions against deportable aliens identified by the Secure Communities program who have committed minor criminal offenses

  • ICE deported 47,000 parents who had least one U.S. citizen child

    Between 1 January 2011and 30 June 2011, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 46,686 parents who had at least one U.S. citizen child; more than 5,100 children of immigrants have ended up in foster care because their parents had either been detained or deported; if the second half of 2011 saw the same rate of deportations, there would be 100,000 kids who are U.S. citizens who had parents deported, and about 15,000 would end up in foster care

  • DHS: more than 1,600 deportation cases should be closed

    As part of the Obama administration’s ongoing efforts to shift its immigration policy to deporting dangerous illegal immigrants, last week DHS officials recommended canceling deportation proceedings against more than 1,600 illegal immigrants in Denver and Baltimore who were not deemed a threat

  • ICE union slows Obama’s deportation policy shift

    An internal disagreement within DHS is hampering the implementation of President Obama’s new immigration strategy which focuses primarily on deporting immigrants convicted of violent crimes

  • DHS IG critical of ICE deportation review process

    DHS Inspector General’s report on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (ICE) handling of the review process of 300,000 pending deportation cases offers ammunition to critics of the administration’s immigration policies

  • Congressional Hispanic Caucus moves against Alabama immigration law

    Representative Luis Gutierrez (D – Illinois) is stepping up his attacks against Alabama’s immigration law by seeking to enlist DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano; this week Gutierrez and other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus met with Secretary Napolitano to request that top federal immigration officials make it clear that immigration enforcement is a federal matter and out of states’ jurisdiction

  • DHS will provide immigration data demanded by House Republicans

    The Obama administration has agreed to provide information requested by House Republicans regarding its Secure Communities program and the process it uses to determine which illegal immigrants should be deported

  • DHS launches wide-ranging review of immigration court cases

    DHS said it will begin reviewing about 300,000 deportation proceedings to implement prosecutorial discretion measures laid out in a June 2011 ICE memo. The review is intended to allow overburdened immigration judges to focus on deporting foreigners who committed serious crimes or pose national security risks.

  • DHS will comply with subpoena regarding non-deported aliens

    House Republicans want to know how the Obama administration decides which aliens to deport and which aliens to allow to remain in the United States. DHS says it will comply with a congressional subpoena seeking DHS records on the issue.