Politico (Letter to the Editor) by Rep. Luis Gutierrez: I try not to address the esteemed chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in the press, but I have to respond to Rep. Lamar Smith’s Opinion piece, “Obama Deportation Numbers a ‘Trick’” (POLITICO, Oct. 26), arguing that the record deportation numbers of the Obama administration are an illusion or some form of “hocus-pocus.”
As I travel the country, I hear the stories of U.S. citizens, long-term residents and upstanding members of local communities whose family members are being deported. There is no magic to it.
I invite the chairman to talk to my constituent, Francisco. He called me because he has been in the country illegally since 1989 and is now in deportation proceedings. Francisco has been married to a U.S. citizen for 19 years, and his three children are U.S. citizens — doing well in colleges and high schools in Chicago.
Under current law, Francisco cannot apply for legal status based on his wife’s citizenship. So he is in line to be one of 400,000 people who will be deported this year.
There is nothing magic about four U.S. citizens — a wife and three kids — losing their husband and father. There is no illusion in being deported because Congress has failed to pass meaningful, sensible immigration reform over stiff opposition from Republicans.
The chairman recently told PBS’s “Frontline” that he believes our policies should be based on the notion that 10 million immigrants will leave our country — magically disappear — and that such a mass exodus of workers, consumers, and taxpayers will — poof — free up millions of jobs in agriculture for unemployed citizens.
If the chairman wants to carry off a real magic trick, he should get his Republican colleagues to join me and other Democrats to talk about realistic immigration reform. That’s some magic I’d like to see.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) is the chairman of the Immigration Task Force for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
As I travel the country, I hear the stories of U.S. citizens, long-term residents and upstanding members of local communities whose family members are being deported. There is no magic to it.
I invite the chairman to talk to my constituent, Francisco. He called me because he has been in the country illegally since 1989 and is now in deportation proceedings. Francisco has been married to a U.S. citizen for 19 years, and his three children are U.S. citizens — doing well in colleges and high schools in Chicago.
Under current law, Francisco cannot apply for legal status based on his wife’s citizenship. So he is in line to be one of 400,000 people who will be deported this year.
There is nothing magic about four U.S. citizens — a wife and three kids — losing their husband and father. There is no illusion in being deported because Congress has failed to pass meaningful, sensible immigration reform over stiff opposition from Republicans.
The chairman recently told PBS’s “Frontline” that he believes our policies should be based on the notion that 10 million immigrants will leave our country — magically disappear — and that such a mass exodus of workers, consumers, and taxpayers will — poof — free up millions of jobs in agriculture for unemployed citizens.
If the chairman wants to carry off a real magic trick, he should get his Republican colleagues to join me and other Democrats to talk about realistic immigration reform. That’s some magic I’d like to see.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) is the chairman of the Immigration Task Force for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
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