Obama Admin’s Deportation Record Via Twisted Rules

Turns out President Barack Obama’s record deportations this past year — 392,862 in a pathetic effort to show the Republicans the Dems could be “tough” on crime — came at the expensive of encouraging detainees to bypass the court system. In order to beat the record set the previous year by the Obama administration, so friendly it is towards Latinos, immigration officials played catch up in the months before the deadline to set a new record.

The Center for Investigative Reporting wrote:

“…officials told immigration officers to encourage eligible foreign nationals to accept a quick pass to their countries without a negative mark on their immigration record…The option, known as voluntary return, may have allowed hundreds of immigrants – who typically would have gone before an immigration judge to contest deportation for offenses such as drunken driving, domestic violence and misdemeanor assault – to leave the country. A voluntary return doesn’t bar a foreigner from applying for legal residence or traveling to the United States in the future. Once the agency closed the books for fiscal 2010 and the record was broken, agents say they were told to stop widely offering the voluntary return option and revert to business as usual.”

So what does this mean? It means the Obama Administration has been offering up people with no power, in this case (probably mostly Latino) immigrants, to the GOP in order to appear “tough on crime.” I cannot for the life of  me understand how, since this strategy hasn’t worked for decades prior, the Dems think it’s going to work this time. This is the same president who promised immigration reform in the lame-duck session, and who went all over the country lovin’ on some spicy food to show how in touch he was with the “Latino” community.

¡Ya basta presidente! I’m getting tired of trying to sift through all this doublespeak. What’s more important: Appeasing the GOP or passing meaningful legislation for this country?