by Catherine A. Traywick, Media Consortium blogger

For the past several months, the Obama administration has relentlessly professed its commitment to targeting only the most dangerous “criminal aliens.” But a new report released this week by the Immigration Policy Center suggests that misguided Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) polices render the administration virtually powerless to fulfill its promise.

As Braden Goyette at Campus Progress reports, ICE’s practice of outsourcing immigration enforcement to local police through the 287(g) and Secure Communities programs undermines the administration’s stated priority of deporting “the worst of the worst.” She writes:

By using these partnerships to increase its deportation figures, the federal government gives up control over front-line enforcement to local police, opening up the door to subjective judgment calls—essentially, all of the problems that plague everyday policing.

Law enforcement charged with enforcing immigration laws—particularly in areas where heavy enforcement is politically popular—routinely make discretionary arrests in direct defiance of the Obama administration’s stated priorities. As a result, tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants have been deported because of minor crimes, such as traffic offenses.

A bigger issue, though, is that ICE’s enforcement programs are fundamentally out of line with the Obama administration’s avowed commitment to targeting criminals. The Secure Communities program, which requires local law enforcement agencies to share fingerprints with ICE, is a key example of this disconnect. The program routinely nets even the victims of violent crime. Secure Communities is expanding rapidly, despite its deviance from the agency’s stated objective of pursuing criminals.

ICE programs target domestic violence victims

Elise Foley at the Washington Independent reports that one issue arising with Secure Communities is the detention and deportation of undocumented victims of domestic violence, whose fingerprints have been entered into police records.

Foley notes that, in response to one such incident, ICE officials told the Washington Post that they would pursue action on all undocumented immigrants brought to their attention, in spite of agency directives:

ICE cannot and will not turn a blind eye to those who violate federal immigration law,” said Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Brian Hale. “While ICE’s enforcement efforts prioritize convicted criminal aliens, ICE maintains the discretion to take action on any alien it encounters.

Of course, ICE can exercise discretion by refusing to take action against victims of violent crime—particularly since doing so defies the administration’s stated goals—but chooses not to. And, without laws in place that clearly limit the scope of ICE’s immigration enforcement programs, the Obama administration’s “priorities” amount to little more than empty rhetoric.

Family fights deportation of son with Down Syndrome

“Discretion” is a word that arises again and again in immigration discourse. A common criticism of the dysfunctional immigration system is that overcrowding and under-staffing discourages officials from exercising their discretion in favor of undocumented immigrants who might have legitimate grounds to remain in the country.

Some of these individuals include legal residents who are deported on a technicality and immigrant soldiers who deported after serving in the U.S. military.

One such individual, whose story is detailed by Change.org’s Prerna Lal, is Hee Chun Kang, a Korean immigrant with Down Syndrome who awaits deportation on a technicality:

Hee Chun and Hyo Chun were 10 and 7 years of age, respectively, when their parents brought them to the United States in 1993. They overstayed their tourist visas, but due to a family petition filed on their behalf, the parents became legal residents last year. However, Hee Chun and Hyo Chun were both over 21 by the time a visa was available, so they aged-out and now await deportation from the United States, away from their parents.

Lal cites several reasons that Kang’s deportation is unnecessary, most of which boil down to the fact that immigration officials have the power to defer the deportation order due to Kang’s highly irregular situation.

Children deported without parents become fodder for drug cartels

ICE’s demonstrated enforcement priorities—as evidenced in the cases mentioned above—hint at the lack of humanity inherent in deportations. But a Texas Observer investigation by Melissa Del Bosque underscores the brutality of a system that relentlessly pursues deportation quotas at the expense of the most vulnerable—children.

Every day, scores of children attempt to cross the border in the U.S., either with family members, or in an effort to reunite with family on the other. These children often end up alone and in the custody of the Border Patrol, which sends them back to Mexico, where they are housed in shelters until they are claimed. According to Del Bosque’s sources, 90,000 children have been deported to Mexico without parents and 13,500 have not been claimed. Of the unclaimed, many fall into the hands of drug cartels and smugglers.

It’s a humanitarian crisis that, according to Del Bosque, could easily be reversed if government officials on both sides of the border abandoned their politics for the sake of protecting thousands of lost children:

Mexico and the United States have binational accords and a repatriation program to protect migrant children, yet neither country ensures they’re safely returned home. The U.S. Border Patrol and [Mexico's social service agency] could set up a database to monitor children at risk to prevent them from ending up on the streets. The U.S. Congress could also pass comprehensive immigration reform that includes a family reunification process to prevent children from being dumped in Mexican shelters. The Border Patrol already has a congressional mandate to screen for vulnerable kids and refer them to U.S. agencies that can help, yet advocates say it’s not being done.

Evidently, good intentions and high-minded priorities mean little when it comes to enforcement. The Obama administration needs to pull its immigration practices into line with its professed priorities—or children, victims, and other innocents will continue to slip through the cracks for the sake of meeting quotas and breaking records.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Diaspora for a complete list of articles on immigration issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, and health care issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Pulse<. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

Today, Friday May 1, 2009, thousands of people across this magnificent and gorgeous country of ours are taking to the streets to rally for comprehensive changes to our immigration policies - changes that promote family unity, promote public health and safety, and end the police-state approach to patrolling communities of color exemplified by abusive tactics practiced by law enforcement officials like Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, Arizona, where Phoenix is located.  

From Seattle to Miami, we are coming out in a show of multi-ethnic solidarity with immigrant workers and the communities in which they live. This show of support represents a new moment in American history - the emergence of a civil rights movement for the 21st century. One that brings together the component parts of the American future to demand fairness and equity for all communities of color in the vibrant mosaic that makes up this great country.

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President Obama is shaking up the established political and corporate order with a bold economic agenda. Sadly, immigration reform remains untouched by Obama’s energizing blueprint for Change. Immigration policy and programs are still tied to President George W. Bush and former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff: Paramilitary-style raids, detention centers, and the deputizing of otherwise-engaged local police forces continue to stand strong.

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This afternoon I went up to Hartford, CT to hear Barack Obama speak at the United Church of Christ's 50th anniversary General Synod.  Connecticut doesn't get much attention from presidential candidates.  They slip in and out of the state to raise money, but rarely bother to do any actual campaigning.  Obama's speech wasn't open to the general public but I figured it was the probably the only campaign appearance he'll make here.  I was excited to have the opportunity to hear him in person.

Obama is a member of a UCC Church and the nearly 9,000 attendees were eager to hear what he had to say.  For the most part his speech didn't disappoint them.  In his stump speech (and his book "The Audacity of Hope") Obama frames the debate in terms of morality and inclusion.  He spoke about the importance of people of all faiths as well as nonbelievers coming together to address issues such as poverty, health care, and ending the war in Iraq.  The crowd gave him several standing ovations, the most fevered coming after he called on them to continue their fight to end the war on Iraq.

And then he turned his attention to immigration.  That's where things got interesting...

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This week immigration has been in the news and on my mind quite a bit. It started with the Republican debate on Tuesday night. Listening to the candidates made me realize that recently the GOP has done a better job of framing the Immigration debate by marrying it to homeland security. The human element gets lost in the fear mongering and Democrats end up on the defensive. How can we reclaim the moral high ground on this issue?

The immigration bill is dead, or maybe it isn't. According to an article in today's WaPo lawmakers plan to keep talking. The future of the bill, and the estimated 15 million people it would immediately affect remains unclear.

Meanwhile in New Haven CT, the municipal government actually did something about immigration reform this week. They approved issuing a form of municipal ID, available to any resident regardless of their immigration status. The idea was conceived so that undocumented workers could open bank accounts instead of having to carry large amounts of cash on their person making them a target for muggers. But it's been expanded so that the ID can function as a library card, debit card and a nifty way to pay parking meters.

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