Democrat Asks: Where Are The Administration "Internal Draft Memos" On Enforcement, Deportation?
08/01/2010
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The Orwellian double think on immigration from our government continues. A July 30 AP story [Agency weighs skirting Congress on immigration, by Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Associated Press Jul 30, 2010] reveals an internal memo written by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) describing tricky

"…ways that the government could provide [relief] to illegal immigrants — including delaying deportation for some, perhaps indefinitely, or granting green cards to others — in the absence of legislation revamping the system…

"The 11-page internal memo, written in April to the agency's director, says: 'This memorandum offers administrative relief options to promote family unity, foster economic growth, achieve significant process improvements and reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization.' "

The memo goes on: "In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform, USCIS can extend benefits and/or protections to many individuals or groups." [Full 11 pages, PDF]

Angry yet? Well the Obama Administration's lax enforcement of our laws and the US Justice Department's suit against the Arizona law suggests this could well be the primary strategy:  stalling, since there is no chance of pushing through Congress a "Comprehensive Immigration Reform" law (a.k.a. amnesty) any time soon.

Obviously, Obama's chances for getting passage of another amnesty law like the one in 1986 is remote as we most toward the November elections, when Democrats will likely lose seats in both Houses, although not likely control. So this would be a way, AP's Hirschfeld Davis says, "to put the nation's estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants on a path to legal status, and as debate rages over an Arizona law targeting people suspected of being in the country illegally."

Now if you believe, Dear Reader, that the Obama Administration's goals of raising the number of illegal immigrants here now and raising their status to citizenship somehow betters America, then by all means stop reading right now.

However, if you have just a teeny qualm, you might wonder about this unnamed USCIS officials' apparent belief that we should, in the worst economic downturn since the 1930's "extend benefits and/or protections to many individuals or groups" that are here illegally!

The memo claims there is a need for "administrative relief options to promote family unity, foster economic growth, achieve significant process improvements and reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization."

Hello? Whose family unity, the nearly 20% of us who are out of work? What fostering of economic growth when consumer buying is off by historic proportions and not likely to recover soon? Where will we achieve significant process improvements by slipping more illegal aliens and new legal immigrant visa holders into the US—the latter already over one million this past 12 months?

How does that constitute caring about your fellow citizens, Mr. Obama? And why is it you fear that nasty "threat", as the USCIS memo puts it, that those here illegally, described as "certain individuals present in the United States without authorization" might actually be deported??

Egad! Why does this Administration want always to side with illegal immigrants vs. American citizens?

Then USCIS issued this mealy-mouthed obfuscation  after being caught with its hand in the immigration cookie jar

"Internal draft memos do not and should not be equated with official action or policy of the Department. We will not comment on notional, pre-decisional memos. As a matter of good government, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will discuss just about every issue that comes within the purview of the immigration system. We continue to maintain that comprehensive bipartisan legislation [that's amnesty, Baby!—DAC], coupled with smart, effective enforcement, is the only solution to our nation's immigration challenges.

"Internal memoranda help us do the thinking that leads to important changes; some of them are adopted and others are rejected. Our goal is to implement policies wisely and well to strengthen all aspects of our mission. The choices we have made so far have strengthened both the enforcement and services sides of USCIS — nobody should mistake deliberation and exchange of ideas for final decisions. To be clear, DHS will not grant deferred action or humanitarian parole to the nation's entire illegal immigrant population."

Hey, that last sentence confuses. Let me repeat it. "To be clear, DHS will not grant deferred action or humanitarian parole to the nation's entire illegal immigrant population." Entire—on other words, only the 12 plus million here already? Only 99% of them?

The danger is that the Obama Administration will just stick with the status quo—keep the leaky borders open, please its corporate paymasters who control our Federal Government, sue any state that tries to protect itself from the immigrant invasion, quietly amnesty as many illegals as possible through this sort of Executive Branch action, keep calling anyone who suggests real patriotic immigration reform a "racist", and let those fecund illegal aliens here now keep spawning their anchor baby children, until reform is impossible.

 This would allow the too many sleeping, indifferent, politically inactive, self-absorbed American voters to ignore the coming immigration iceberg until it sinks the tax-supported benefits we now enjoy—and make our present economic downturn suddenly look like a slight hail storm.

Final thought: If the UCIS draft memo was part of a process where "just about every issue that comes within the purview of the immigration system" is discussedwhy not also make public the draft memo that discusses attrition through enforcement?  And (can't wait for this) the one about a second Operation Wetback?

Donald A. Collins [email him], is a freelance writer living in Washington DC and a former long time member of the board of FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. His views are his own.

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