Obama Admin Increases Deportations by 10-25%

As Chris Hayes Reports, the Obama Administration has been breaking records on Deportation of suspected Illegal Immigrants, increasing the rate by 10% of Bush final year, and 25% greater than his first year.



From the Washington Post

In a bid to remake the enforcement of federal immigration laws, the Obama administration is deporting record numbers of illegal immigrants and auditing hundreds of businesses that blithely hire undocumented workers.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency expects to deport about 400,000 people this fiscal year, nearly 10 percent above the Bush administration's 2008 total and 25 percent more than were deported in 2007. The pace of company audits has roughly quadrupled since President George W. Bush's final year in office.

The effort is part of President Obama's larger project "to make our national laws actually work," as he put it in a speech this month at American University. Partly designed to entice Republicans to support comprehensive immigration reform, the mission is proving difficult and politically perilous.

...

The Obama administration has been moving away from using work-site raids to target employers. Just 765 undocumented workers have been arrested at their jobs this fiscal year, compared with 5,100 in 2008, according to Department of Homeland Security figures. Instead, officers have increased employer audits, studying the employee documentation of 2,875 companies suspected of hiring illegal workers and assessing $6.4 million in fines.

So yet again the reality on the ground is completely at odds with the type of rhetorical we've been hearing about immigration from Administration Critics. Particularly those who support measure like horribly bigoted measures like SB1070. Case in point, Rep. Lamar Smith and Constitution Party Candidate for Governor of Colorado Tom Tancredo who argues that Obama has come close "violating his oath of office" by not enforcing immigration laws.

Eleven years ago, like every citizen elected to serve in Congress or any person appointed to any federal position, I swore an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.”

I’ve always thought it significant that the Founders included domestic enemies in that oath of office. They thought liberty was as much at risk from threats within our borders as from outside. ... Mr. Obama is a more serious threat to America than al Qaeda. We know that Osama bin Laden and followers want to kill us, but at least they are an outside force against whom we can offer our best defense. ...

Mr. Obama’s most egregious and brazen betrayal of our Constitution was his statement to Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican, that the administration will not enforce security on our southern border because that would remove Republicans’ desire to negotiate a “comprehensive” immigration bill. That is, to put it plainly, a decision that by any reasonable standard constitutes an impeachable offense against the Constitution.

A more serious threat than al Qeada? I mean really.

With his increased crackdown on illegal workplace hirings of undocumented immigrants (levying a over $6.4 million in fines this fiscal year) as well as sending over 12,000 U.S. National Guard Troops to the Border it seems to me that President Obama is doing more to secure our borders than just about any other President in History.

Yes, it might be fair to say that hasn't completely ended the flow of illegals across our border, but then 30 Years of the War on Drugs hasn't really ended the illicit drug trade either has it?

What needs to be done, is the creation/restoration of a blue color worker visa, particular since the primary visa available for immigrant workers (H1B) now requires a college degree or special skills like being Neurosurgeon or Biochemist. The reason why have so many people coming here illegally is simply the fact that they the immigration laws are grossly biased against blue color workers and the poor (There is an H2B visa for person who do not quality for the "Special Occupations" within the H1B visa, but it only allows for about 66,000 visitations per year on a seasonal or "One-Time" basis - which is clearly deficient for the wide variety of businesses who are currently employing immigrant workers who literally have no legal path to try and better their lives or escape abject poverty.

To Qualify for the H1B Visa Program, you must work in a 'specialty occupation': The core Specialty Occupations include: IT, Computing, Finance, Accounting, Banking, Marketing, Advertising, PR, Sales, Recruiting, Engineering (all types), Teaching, HealthCare/Medical, Legal, Lawyers, Networking, Telecoms, Business, Management and Hospitality.

An H1B visa is typically valid for up to six (6) years and entitles your spouse (husband/wife) and children (under 21) to accompany you and live in the USA on an H4 visa. The H4 dependent visa does not allow your spouse/children to work (unless they get their own H1B visa).

Of course the idea of allowing manual labor workers to legally come here and compete fairly with American Workers - pay them above the table, providing them workers compensation and health care, while removing the anti-competitive advantage for their employers - is exactly what the Screaming Xenophobes on the right don't want.

But one thing they can't say, without sounding like a fracking idiot, is that Obama isn't protecting our borders.

He most certainly is.

Vyan