Immigration for Dummies

Immigration for dummies

We are  daily bombarded by pundits, whose political affiliations are well known, hurling invective and insults at the Obama Administration for the current  surge of illegals entering the country across the Mexican border even though these persons are being detained for return. The legislation which prescribes the process is a Bush administration piece of legislation. 

Such (un)worthies as Rick Santorum and Lou Dobbs have specifically blamed the surge in illegals on the Obama Administration's 2012 policy statement which applied only to those who have been in the US more than 5 years, and before 2012. It has no relevance to the current surge in crossings.

Santorum specifically stated, " Children are crossing the border because President Barack Obama said "if you come, you’re going to be able to stay, because we’re not going to enforce the law."    If that were true, that would be problematic; the problem is however , that it's far from true, to the point of being simply a partisan lie.

  Dealing first with Santorum's fallacious claims:  A few months before the 2012 election, Obama issued an executive order that allowed certain young people without legal immigration status to apply for a two-year deferral of any removal proceedings. That deferral could be extended, and anyone who was accepted would also gain the ability to work in this country. Generally speaking, it targeted people who had come across the border with their parents when they were little and had lived in the United States for many years. The move came after Republicans rejected a bill, the DREAM Act, that would have put these people on the path to citizenship. The Homeland Security Department summarized who qualified:

You came to the United States before reaching your 16th birthday;

You have continuously resided in the United States since June 15, 2007, up to the present time;

You were under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012;

You entered without inspection before June 15, 2012, or your lawful immigration status expired as of June 15, 2012;

You are currently in school, have graduated or obtained your certificate of completion from high school, have obtained your general educational development certification, or you are an honorably discharged veteran of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States;

You have not been convicted of a felony, significant misdemeanor, or three or more misdemeanors, and do not otherwise pose a threat.

No child arriving at the border today would meet those criteria. Santorum claimed that Obama said, "If you come, you’re going to be able to stay." That would not follow under Obama’s deferred action memo, nor his public statements about the situation. The president didn't say it, and it has no relevance to the current crisis! It's a blatant lie, and has been rated "Pants on Fire" (blatant lie) by conservative fact checker, Politifact

As for Dobbs: Faux news Business analyst Lou Dobbs, who has made immigration his straw man since 2008, said: "They (the administration)  manipulated deportation data to make it appear that the Border Patrol was deporting more illegal immigrants than the Bush administration," Dobbs said July 1, 2014. "The Homeland Security secretary had to admit before Congress that was not the case -- that, in fact, they were manipulating the numbers."

The issue here is, or should be, are we getting more or fewer illegals out of the country and back across the border? Dobbs is playing fast and loose with terminology in keeping with Faux News' policy of excoriating the administration and especially the President at any and every opportunity. There are several mechanisms by which persons who have illegally entered the US are sent back to their points of origin -  removal, return, and deportation. Dobbs chooses to look at only those actions specifically called "deportations" and ignore any other method by which illegals are dealt with, even if the result is the same.

Defining deportations is not as easy as it sounds.

In federal government lingo, official judicial or administrative orders to leave the country are called "removals," and they can happen right at the border or anywhere else on American soil. A removal is what most people would consider a deportation.

For people caught illegally crossing the border and simply turned around, there’s another term: "return."

Unlike removals, a return does not bar someone from legally entering the country someday, though that is hard for most because they do not have a family or employment connection necessary to get in line for citizenship, says David Martin, a University of Virginia School of Law professor. Martin also worked as Immigration and Naturalization Service general counsel in the Clinton administration and as DHS deputy general counsel from 2009-10 under Obama.

The Border Patrol primarily handles voluntary returns to Mexico, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) , equipped with immigration judges and detention center beds, generally handles removals.

Over the past several administrations, the Department of Homeland Security has shifted its immigration focus to undocumented immigrants who commit crimes or are caught at the border. The idea is to get them out, and keep them out. The shift picked up in the George W. Bush administration and intensified under Obama’s watch.

Whereas many immigrants previously caught at the border simply were bused back to Mexico, they now are returned with official deportation orders, prosecuted, or moved to different parts of the border so they cannot reconnect with their smuggler, Martin said.  In short, these people previously would have been classified as a "return," but the policy has been to put them through removal proceedings. As such, they are classified as a "removal."

The figure shows those illegals leaving the country by all means. It is worthy of note that Dobbs, apparently an equal opportunity hater, was also critical of the  Bush administration in this area, and the fact that he is attempting to flay President Obama with Bush statistics says much about both his faces.  

Take note that in 2009, President Obama's first year in office,  the total numbers of illegals being sent back (by all methods) rose dramatically. whether it was by border removal (allowing reentry, favored by Bush,) or  interior removals. While the number of border removals remains high (remember, these persons can come back as legal immigrants, the use of interior removals (permanent deportation) has skyrocketed under the Obama administration.   Total removals, which is what Dobbs would cite if he were a person of integrity, were in 2012, over 100 million higher than the largest Bush are number! Dobbs is liar and even conservative fact checkers have said so.

There can be little doubt that there is an immigration crisis at our southern border. There has been zero willingness on the part of Tea Partiers especially and Republicans in general to create meaningful bipartisan immigration legislation. Blaming the guy who would eventually sign such legislation instead of those tasked with writing it is morally bankrupt political posturing.