Obama Denounced for Horrible Immigrant Rights Record

Yesterday, representatives from several groups working on comprehensive immigration reform broke their silence to publicly criticize the Obama Administration’s enforcement-focused immigration policies for causing more deportations and family separations while doing nothing to fix the broken system.

“Millions of citizens and new Americans voted for change, and what they got, as far as immigration issues are concerned, is more, much more of the same,” said the opening speaker, Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA).  “We demand an immediate stop to the deportations because each one of these deportations equals a life destroyed and a family devastated.”

We already knew this, but the figures presented at the press conference tell us squarely that President Obama is no better than former President George W. Bush on immigration. Take a sneak peak: 387,790 deportations in first year of the Obama administration, up from 264,503 under the Bush administration, a more than 50% increase in deportations. So much for bringing “order and compassion” to the system.

Hours after getting blasted for a track record worse than the former Bush Administration, the Department of Homeland Security issued a (minor) correction to the figures cited at the press conference. They reported that deportations only increased by 40%, admitting to erring when lumping together immigrants deported and those leaving via “voluntary departure.” Is that seriously all that the Obama Administration has to say in response to a major wake-up call for legalization now? Given how many immigrants are forced to sign a voluntary departure form, it seems like little more than a euphemism for deportation. So we will keep those initial figures.

After days of excitement over the scheduled meeting between Senator Schumer, Senator Graham and President Obama, and news over how the President was trying to resuscitate immigration reform, it turns out that the meeting never even got off the ground. The flight was canceled. And it looks like immigration reform is facing the same fate: cancellation. The meeting is now rescheduled for Thursday.

“No legalization. No reelection,” Emma Lozano, executive director of the Chicago-based Centro Sin Fronteras, told reporters.

That sounds just about right. Lets go ahead and cancel immigrant support for the Obama Administration and Democrats in general. If they cannot pass even standalone legislation like the DREAM Act with wide majorities in Congress, maybe they can do it with much less. After all, they expect us to survive on nothing. We are just leveling the playing field.

Si se puede.

Video Credit: talkradionews