Immigration Insanity

The lead article in today’s New York Times, “Administration Spares Students in Deportations,” describes an Obama administration policy bringing sanity back to the debate about illegal immigration. The government, specifically ICE, the immigration enforcement agency, is focusing its efforts on illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. It is indefinitely deferring deportations of students, especially those who have come to the United States as small children.

The Republican reaction? A seeming lack of compassion for the plight of others, and a demand to enforce the law without any mercy.

I should, however, give credit to the Republican Senator, Richard Lugar, who with Democrat Richard Durbin has co-sponsored the Dream Act, student legislation to give a path to citizenship for those who came to the country under 16 and who have graduated from high school with a clean criminal record.

In terms of enforcement procedures, the Obama administration denies it is legislating from the executive branch and frames the issue as one of limited resources. While the number of deportations has increased since the Bush administration, it has declined 24 percent for those with civil violations but no crime.

Republicans continue to insist this involves selective enforcement of the law and, while they are technically correct, selective enforcement happens all the time. The police always make value judgments in whom they arrest as does the bench in terms of sentencing. The Obama policy regarding immigration makes sense for our nation and those who are within our shores, both legally and illegally.