Round Up: Deportations Hit Record High; Deaths Along the Border Also Hit a High; Lou Dobbs Faces Reality
Today is a day full of news of record highs. According to The New York Times, deportations from the U.S. are at a record high (The New York Times):
Immigration authorities deported a record 392,862 immigrants over the last year, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday.
About half of those deported — 195,772 — were convicted criminals, also a record, Ms. Napolitano said, and an increase of more than 81,000 deportations of criminals over the final year of George W. Bush‘s presidency…
…Ms. Napolitano said the deportation figures, especially the criminals figure, reflected the Obama administration’s shift to focusing more closely on “removing those who pose public safety threats to our communities.”
And what about those who hadn’t committed crimes?
Officials said that many of the nearly 200,000 immigrants deported who had committed no crimes were fugitives from immigration courts or had recently crossed the border illegally.
Immigration lawyers questioned that portrayal. “Were they immigrants who were just caught in the web of a very dysfunctional system?” asked David Leopold, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. He said that repairing the system would require a broader overhaul to provide channels for illegal immigrants to gain legal status.
“Everybody is behind smart enforcement,” Mr. Leopold said. “But smart enforcement without a comprehensive fix to the system is not smart.” Despite repeated pledges by President Obama, he has made no progress on persuading Congress to take up an overhaul.
OK — so David Leopold, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, is asserting that everyone wants enforcement. But Mr. Leopold says enforcement won’t work without a system overhaul. What would an overhaul of the immigration system look like?
Deaths of illegal immigrants at the U.S./Mexican border are also at a record high (NPR):
Authorities have discovered 252 bodies in the Arizona desert over the past year — the remains of migrants who died trying to cross into the U.S. illegally. That’s a record, but overall the Border Patrol says the number of people crossing illegally is down. So, why the increase in the number of bodies?
In recent years, the U.S. government has built a border fence, improved technology and hired thousands more Border Patrol agents.
That has helped reduce the number of people caught crossing illegally, but it has also pushed crossers into more remote and dangerous places to avoid detection — places where sore feet or a broken ankle can mean death from dehydration or exposure.
This report is another fantastic example of how interpreting data and facts can lead to vastly different conclusions. Deaths at the border have hit a record high — fact. We’ve built a fence, have better technology, and have greatly increased the number of agents monitoring the border — fact. The number of people crossing the border is down — fact. Has increased security helped solve the problem? Mexican government officials don’t seem to think so:
Mexican Consul Juan Manuel Calderon Jaimes says his government needs to do a better job of warning potential illegal immigrants of the dangers of crossing the desert. He also says the solution to the problem is changing U.S. immigration law so more people can enter legally.
What do you think the solution is for deterring people from crossing the border illegally?
Today news broke that Lou Dobbs, the ultimate opponent to illegal immigration, in fact employs undocumented workers to care for his daughter’s horses and his multiple properties. While other media outlets are commenting on the hypocrisy of the situation, I’m more interested in the fact that the existence of and hiring of undocumented workers is a reality — certain jobs and industries attract the undocumented, and is there really a good, certain way to know if the people you’re hiring are legal? Sure, you can check papers, but as we talked about yesterday the papers may be forged.
And some industries are far more likely to have undocumented workers (The Nation):
Jay Hickey, president of the American Horse Council, the horse industry’s main lobby group, suggested in 2009 that more than half of the workers in his industry are likely undocumented. Likewise, studies have found that undocumented workers make up an estimated 28 percent of workers in landscaping.
Recently California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman was also accused of employing undocumented workers. Their presence in the American economy is a reality — how do you feel about this?
Category: Enforcement
