The NY Times reports its own analyses has found that two-thirds of the two million deportation cases during the Obama administration were for minor offenses or no offense at all (photo by Fibonacci Blue).
The findings by the Times is in contrast to Obama’s stated goal of going after “criminals, gang bangers, people who are hurting the community, not after students, not after folks who are here just because they’re trying to figure out how to feed their families.”
Immigration advocates have blasted the President’s deportation policies, while his opponents argued the efforts didn’t go far enough.
“It would have been better for the administration to state its enforcement intentions clearly and stand by them, rather than being willing to lean whichever way seemed politically expedient at any given moment,” said David Martin, the deputy general counsel at the Department of Homeland Security until December 2010. “They lost credibility on enforcement, despite all the deportations, while letting activists think they could always get another concession if they just blamed Obama. It was a pipe dream to think they could make everyone happy.”
“In truth, this administration — more than any other — has devastated immigrant communities across the country, tearing families away from loved ones, simply because they drove without a license, or re-entered the country desperately trying to be reunited with their family members,” said Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center.
You can read a more detailed analyses of the findings in the NY Times.
