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Monday, August 30, 2010

News Feds Step Back on Immigrant Deportations

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 9:44 AM

All summer in the news section, we've been covering the rise of illegal immigrant deportations in Oregon. Under a new national effort which is aimed at deporting "criminal aliens", Oregon law enforcement started running arrestee's fingerprints through the federal immigration database last April; people who couldn't prove they're legal citizens would wind up shipped to an immigration detention facility in Tacoma. Then just this week, I reported on immigrants who were deported after committing very minor crimes, like not paying MAX fare.

Well, now comes the news that immigration enforcement is starting to agree with its critics. The new crackdown on immigrants has led to a monumental backlog in immigration courts: there's nearly 248,000 cases pending nationwide. So the feds are doing exactly what human rights critics said they should do and are starting to drop deportation cases of people charged with no crime or very minor crimes. If this keeps up, MAX fare-skippers might stand a chance of staying in the country after all.

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  • Mark Searcy

 

Comments (8) RSS

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1
Allow me to briefly play devil's advocate. Someone enters the country illegally. They are most likely employed illegally by an employer who fails to check their status (possible crime) or is fooled by fake id (another crime). Then, the illegal immigrant, for lack of a better name, commits a minor crime like not paying MAX fare, something that would get me ticketed. So we've now found someone who has likely committed multiple crimes, possibly including identity theft and fraud, and we send them down for deportation. Then, after all this cat and mouse, we drop the charges and let them stay.

Throw out all the racism, xenophobia and general ignorance displayed by anti-immigration crowd. Can you see why some people might have a problem with this, even if only in principle?
Posted by Suburban Porn King on August 30, 2010 at 10:38 AM · Report
2
@ SPK: +1.

I'm as in favor of immigration reform as any other liberal, but I also don't understand this "it's just a minor crime, they shouldn't be deported" stuff. They're in the country illegally: THAT'S why they're being deported.

I don't want to live in a country with a shadow population/underclass - I want the government to know who is in the country, and I want all of those people to have their full rights under the Constitution. I think cracking down on employers is the right way to attack the "pull" factors of illegal immigration, and I think this administration is doing a good job of enforcing the laws in this area.

If it were up to me, there would be full amnesty/naturalization for everyone up to a certain date of entry, and then reform of immigration policies, and then rigid enforcement of those laws.

Finally, it's very fashionable among liberals to have this "just let everybody in all the time or you're being uncool/racist" attitude that I simply don't agree with.

I think there's a way better case that we should strive to make sure that all of our laws provide equal protection, as well as the flip side that entails - equal application.

Posted by Commenty Colin on August 30, 2010 at 11:53 AM · Report
3
"I want the government to know who is in the country, and I want all of those people to have their full rights under the Constitution. I think cracking down on employers is the right way to attack the "pull" factors of illegal immigration"

Amen. We need a system where an employer can post a low-skilled job and legally pull a "guest worker" if there are no resident applicants within a reasonable period of time. Problem solved.
Posted by Suburban Porn King on August 30, 2010 at 12:59 PM · Report
4
"We need a system where an employer can post a low-skilled job and legally pull a "guest worker" if there are no resident applicants within a reasonable period of time."

Well, in a way, they already can. Employers can sponsor people for work visas. It just costs money for most people involved. Which is why I think most people don't do it.
Posted by BruceWang on August 30, 2010 at 1:21 PM · Report
5
It's also not a streamlined process.
Posted by Suburban Porn King on August 30, 2010 at 2:30 PM · Report
6
Oh of course yep. And though I agree with the ideas going on in the comments here, I just thought I'd give you all a reminder that Legal Immigrants are also at risk of deportation with these kinds of laws. Any time an immigrant who is not yet a naturalized citizen get's even questioned by the police, they can be deported. Trust me, they told me so when they gave me my green card!
Posted by BruceWang on August 30, 2010 at 4:03 PM · Report
7
@Commenty Colin -- Ronald Regan already did the one time full amnesty/naturalization for everyone up to a certain date of entry, and then reform of immigration policies, and then rigid enforcement of those laws. But then everyone forgot about it.
Posted by Rosy on August 31, 2010 at 1:31 AM · Report
8
I agree with the general sentiment of all these comments. Immigration laws should be reformed and uniformly enforced. Seems like Mirk kinda has the wrong of it.
Posted by Around on August 31, 2010 at 9:05 AM · Report

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