Obama Administration Faces Criticism For Deportation Raids

A series of deportation raids targeting Central American asylum-seekers led immigrant rights activists and even fellow Democrats to harshly criticize the Obama administration. The Washington Post had already revealed plans by the Department of Homeland Security to round up and “immediately deport” hundreds of adults and children “wherever they can be found” in December.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during a raid. Wikimedia Commons under a public domain license
Image via Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license

The operation focuses on refugees who entered the US on its southwestern border in 2014, a period in which a massive influx of newcomers led politicians to decry a “border crisis”. The immigrants targeted had been issued removal orders, but they were not enforced until now. Over the New Year’s weekend, 121 individuals were apprehended in Georgia, Texas and North Carolina, and so far, at least 77 have been removed.

The deportation effort came as a surprise to many Democrats and immigration advocates, and it was met with an outcry. All three Democrats running for president in 2016 have distanced themselves from the raids. Congressional Democrats expressed their anger with the deportations during a private meeting hosted by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) on Capitol Hill this week. Illinois Representative Luis Gutierrez (D) even held a protest outside the White House.

Immigrant and Latino groups have also reacted sharply to the new raids. Victor Nieblas Pradis, the President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said that:

“We should offer help to those seeking refuge from persecution and violence whether they fled from war in Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan or from gangs, rape, or domestic violence in Honduras, Guatemala, or El Salvador.”

The National Immigrant Justice Center offered similar criticism, also pointing  the notoriously high crime rates in the three Central American nations.

Activists also voiced concerns that the rush to deport would lead to mistakes and their fears may already have come true. At least twenty immigrants swept up in last week’s raids have been granted temporary relief from deportation as their legal options had not yet been exhausted. Three families had already boarded a plane in Texas and were then pulled out again at the last moment.

One of those who narrowly escaped deportation was the mother of two young children who was to be sent back to El Salvador, the world’s murder capital, on Thursday morning. She had left the country in June 2014, and turned herself in at the American border. She was eventually given a deportation stay, a work permit and a social security card, and allowed to live with her mother in Atlanta. On January 2, two days before her next scheduled check-in appointment with the authorities, she was woken up by 10 immigration agents who told her she’d be taken to the office to check her papers, then allowed to come back. However, when she arrived, she was told that she would be deported. She had an epileptic attack and after being treated in a hospital, she was transferred to Dilley Detention Centre in Texas. There, she was forced to sign papers declaring she would not return to the US for ten years before she was allowed to talk to consular officers. While in detention, she had two more seizures. While she was lucky to be spared from removal at the last minute, her case raises questions about whether the deportations are carried out according to due process standards and whether the immigrants are given access to effective counsel.

Despite the uproar, officials told the Washington Post that the raids would continue in order to deter Central Americans from entering the country .

The administration hopes that it tough stance will prevent spikes in the number of families crossing the border in 2016 similar to those in 2014 and the fall of 2015.

But, as the Los Angeles Times explains, the harsh move

“Threatens to erode the goodwill that Obama’s executive actions created among the Latino and immigrant community after years of rising deportations under the administration.”

The newspaper also argued that the raids could “blur” what had been a stark contrast between the Democrats’ policies and the harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric used by Republican presidential candidates like Donald Trump.

Rather than continue the hasty deportation of families fleeing violence – without due process – and spreading fear within the immigrant community, the Obama administration should return to a humane refugee policy as an antidote to the hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric of Republicans.

 

 

David Zuther is a high school student currently living in Utah. He is interested in current affairs and believes in social justice, civil liberties and human rights. He is passionate about photography, debating and reading. Follow him on twitter for political news and commentary.