About Me

My photo
Beverly Hills, California, United States
Eli Kantor is a labor, employment and immigration law attorney. He has been practicing labor, employment and immigration law for more than 36 years. He has been featured in articles about labor, employment and immigration law in the L.A. Times, Business Week.com and Daily Variety. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Journal. Telephone (310)274-8216; eli@elikantorlaw.com. For more information, visit beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com and and beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com

Translate

Friday, March 14, 2014

Obama Orders Review of Deportation Practices

Wall Street Journal
By Laura Meckler
March 13, 2014

WASHINGTON—The White House said Thursday President Barack Obama had ordered a review of deportation practices, an announcement that comes amid pressure from Hispanic groups to scale back deportations.

In a meeting Thursday evening, the president told leaders of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that he had asked Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to conduct an "inventory" of the department's deportation practices to see how they may be done "more humanely within the confines of the law," the White House said.

On Friday, Mr. Obama plans to meet with organizations pushing for an overhaul of immigration laws, a White House official said. Details of the review may be fleshed out then.

It wasn't clear whether the review would lead to changes in administration policies. Mr. Obama and his aides repeatedly have said they don't have the authority to stem deportations without agreement from Congress, although the president did just that in 2012 for many immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Many activists want him to extend the safe harbor he offered those young people to others in the U.S. illegally.

Republican lawmakers have said they are increasingly frustrated that Mr. Obama has taken other actions without congressional consent, such as his order Thursday for a review aimed at extending overtime pay rules to more workers.

Mr. Obama's move also comes as Democrats are working to motivate their supporters to vote in the November elections to counter an energized Republican Party seeking to take control of the Senate.

"The president emphasized his deep concern about the pain too many families feel from the separation that comes from our broken immigration system," the White House said in summarizing the meeting.

The Senate passed a bipartisan immigration bill last year. But many GOP lawmakers say they don't trust Mr. Obama to enforce the law, and they won't pass an immigration bill until that changes. Any move seen as undermining existing law could feed GOP complaints.

Several Republicans have said it is possible to craft acceptable immigration legislation, and earlier this year, House Speaker John Boehner found support for a set of legislative principles. But Republican lawmakers and aides have said they object to taking up the matter in an election year when they hope to keep the focus on health care, an issue that unites them, rather than immigration, a topic that divides the GOP.

As anger from the Latino community mounts, the White House has worked to channel frustration toward House Republicans. But with no action anticipated in the House, the pressure has built on Mr. Obama to take action.

Several groups are preparing to mark the 2-millionth deportation under Mr. Obama, a milestone expected sometime this spring, though the precise date will not be known.

A close ally of Mr. Obama, Janet MurguĂ­a, president of the National Council of La Raza, recently called the president the "deporter-in-chief" and pushed him to suspend deportations for most illegal immigrants.

"Since I ran for president, I've pushed for comprehensive immigration reform, and I will continue to push," Mr. Obama said during a recent question and answer session with Telemundo and Univision. "I am the champion-in-chief of comprehensive immigration reform. But until Congress passes new laws, I am constrained in what I am able to do."

The White House called Thursday's meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus shortly before the legislators were scheduled to meet and consider a resolution asking the White House to suspend deportations, an official said.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D., Ill.), who was in the meeting with Mr. Obama, described the conversation as the beginning of a "new dialogue" between the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the White House, saying that communication between them had been "dormant for too long."

"In the absence of action by House Republicans, administrative action is imperative," he said. "It is clear that the pleas from the community got through to the president."


Mr. Gutierrez said he planned to meet with Mr. Johnson next week to present options for a deportation policy

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com

No comments: