Wall Street Journal
By Miriam Jordan
October 13, 2013
Impatient for an immigration overhaul, many U.S. activists are shifting their focus from Congress to President Barack Obama, whom they blame for a deportation policy that has been removing immigrants from the country at the rate of about 1,100 a day, substantially more than under the Bush administration.
Immigrant and civil-rights organizations converged in Phoenix over the weekend to plan their next steps, which they say likely could include lawsuits, acts of civil disobedience and protests, similar to Friday's actions in Tucson, Ariz., where activists chained themselves to buses transporting detained immigrants. The group also blocked an entrance to a federal courthouse in an attempt to thwart proceedings that likely would result in deportations.
Nearly 12 million immigrants live in the U.S. illegally, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, and the Obama administration has been deporting about 400,000 immigrants annually.
"We want the president to suspend deportations wholesale, particularly for people who would qualify for legalization" if Congress were to create a new immigration system, said Chris Newman, legal director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, a group at the forefront of the campaign.
Activists said they plan to disrupt operations at the Phoenix office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, on Monday. The federal agency runs a controversial national program that enlists local law enforcement to identify undocumented immigrants for potential deportation.
"The president has the authority to stop deportations," said Edna Monroy, a leader of the California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance, whose members were at the Phoenix gathering. "Until he uses it, we will begin to stop them ourselves."
Mr. Obama has said in the past that he cannot unilaterally freeze deportations. A White House aide Sunday said "the only way to solve our nation's immigration problems is to pass a commonsense [immigration] bill…. Until then, we are doing what we can under current law to make sure that our enforcement resources are being used appropriately and effectively to protect our border security and decrease crime." ICE didn't return calls seeking comment.
Last year, the Obama administration did offer relief to one group of undocumented immigrants.
Protests and pressure from undocumented youngsters—known as Dreamers after proposed legislation called the Dream Act—culminated in Mr. Obama granting them a reprieve from deportation and the ability to obtain work permits, a policy that stopped short of full legal status.
Mr. Newman said that advocates will seek "vast expansion" of that reprieve initiative, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, to "provide breathing room for people who will eventually qualify for citizenship" if an overhaul passes in Congress.
Experts say that with trust in Mr. Obama eroding among immigrants, especially in the Latino community, it is conceivable he would grant provisional legal status to more undocumented immigrants if Congress doesn't act in coming months.
Deportation has begun to emerge as a major theme at protests across the country this month. In particular, Dreamers who traditionally have donned caps and gowns in peaceful protest or lobbied on Capitol Hill are turning to locks and chains in acts of civil disobedience, from New York to Arizona.
Lorella Praeli, director of advocacy and policy for the United We Dream network, said that deportations were "indefensible" and that Mr. Obama must be held accountable.
"Certainly, the administration could do something like DACA more quickly when a constituency is willing to be disobedient in a confrontational way," said Louis DeSipio, a professor of political science at University of California, Irvine.
Opponents say any move by the president to grant some kind of provisional status would circumvent Congress's role to make law. Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an organization that has lobbied against a legalization program, deemed it unconstitutional. "The idea the president should ignore current laws based on the possibility that some legislation may pass in the future is fantasyland," he said.
Prospects for an immigration overhaul appeared more likely after the Senate passed a bipartisan bill in June. But in the House, legislators have favored piecemeal bills tackling discrete issues and have been divided over whether to offer citizenship to those legalized. Recent domestic issues, such as the debt-ceiling debate and the government shutdown, also have pushed immigration to the back burner.
To be sure, a more aggressive approach by activists could alienate some lawmakers and a general public that polls show has become more amenable to legalizing the undocumented. "There is always a risk in such actions that the message will get lost in the action itself, if there's violence," said Mr. DeSipio.
Notably absent from the Phoenix event were representatives from big Washington-based advocacy organizations that prefer to keep the pressure on the House. They fear magnifying Mr. Obama's role could decrease the chances of congressional action.
Still, momentum against deportations grew last week when California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, signed a bill banning state law-enforcement officers from holding undocumented immigrants who had been arrested for minor crimes, such as traffic violations, for transfer to ICE.
California is the second state after Connecticut to pass such a measure. New Orleans and Newark, N.J., are among cities that have also stopped cooperating with aspects of the federal program, called "Secure Communities."
In an attempt to cast itself as tough on enforcement to win congressional support for an immigration overhaul, the Obama administration touted the program as a deterrent to future illegal immigration and a key to ridding the country of serious felons. But the vast majority of those being deported aren't serious felons, according to independent analyses.
Resistance from states such as California is vital to "taking local law enforcement out of the business of enforcing immigration," said Angela Chan, senior attorney at Advancing Justice—Asian Law Caucus, a national civil-rights organization.
Critics say Secure Communities discourages immigrants—out of fear of any encounter with police—from reporting crimes in their neighborhoods, and say that has an effect of undermining public safety. They also say it has broken up families and led to the deportation of individuals with clean records, including some victims of domestic violence.
"In reality, it picks up anyone and everyone who has contact with local police that ICE thinks is removable," said Ms. Chan.
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