On Monday, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told a gathering in El Paso what is not new news, but what is staggering every time it’s repeated. “In both fiscal years 2009 and 2010, Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed more illegal immigrants from our country than ever before, with more than 779,000 removals nationwide in the last two years,” Napolitano said, the AP reported. It’s certainly not the first time Napolitano’s boasted about her agency’s immigration enforcement.
“The Obama administration must prove it is tough on illegal immigrants and can secure the country’s porous borders if it is to stand a chance of passing a comprehensive overhaul of America’s tattered immigration system,” the AP piece says, reporting as fact a political argument that is actually in great dispute.
There is what the Obama administration thinks it must do, and there is what it refuses to use its power to actually change. The odds of comprehensive immigration reform happening this or last year were nil. And still the Obama administration pressed forward with ever more enforcement and expansion of Secure Communities, the new program that allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement to peer into the databases of local precincts of anyone who’s detained, fingerprinted, or arrested.
The Obama administration has steadfastly refused to consider administrative options, which are completely within the president’s power, to halt the mass deportations. According to Napolitano, among the deported have been people who were convicted of violent crimes. They make up a tiny percentage of the people who are ejected from the country every year. The majority have been convicted of no crime whatsoever. Those who did have criminal record had been found guilty of petty crimes and traffic violations.
What’s more, talk of a “porous border” ignores the fact that migration into the country is actually down. And the country has beefed up enforcement along the border to the tune of an extra $600 million Congress set aside for border militarization. The Border Patrol is the country’s largest uniformed law enforcement agency.
Defying Trump’s right-wing agenda from Day One
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Looking to the first year of Trump’s presidency, we know that the most vulnerable among us will be harmed. Militarized policing in U.S. cities and at the borders will intensify. The climate crisis will deteriorate further. The erosion of free speech has already begun, and we anticipate more attacks on journalism.
It will be a terrifying four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. But we’re not falling to despair, because we know there are reasons to believe in our collective power.
The stories we publish at Truthout are part of the antidote to creeping authoritarianism. And this year, we promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation, vitriol, hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
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