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| Obama, deporter-in-chief: the shame of immigration policy, one family at a time | Obama, deporter-in-chief: the shame of immigration policy, one family at a time |
| (5 months later) | |
| Francisco Vega was just 15 years old when he got convicted for possession of a controlled substance, a minor crime – and one that has haunted this Mexican-born immigrant's life ever since. The juvenile drug conviction was subsequently vacated, but not before costing Francisco the chance to become a permanent, legal American resident through marriage. This all-too-common incident ultimately led to his being deported in 2008. He made it back to the US, only to face deportation again five years later.Now he's languishing in a cell in a privately run immigrant detention center in Tacoma, Washington, where his wife tells me he is not faring well: "We are not allowed contact visits, but I can see through the glass window that he is wasting away." | |
| If the Vegas lose their second battle and Francisco is permanently removed from this country – if they lose a husband and a father of four American-born children, one of whom served in the US Air Force – it will be just another casualty of the backward immigration enforcement policies pursued by the Obama administration that are ripping families apart. | If the Vegas lose their second battle and Francisco is permanently removed from this country – if they lose a husband and a father of four American-born children, one of whom served in the US Air Force – it will be just another casualty of the backward immigration enforcement policies pursued by the Obama administration that are ripping families apart. |
| Indeed, Francisco Vega and many other locked-up or deported would-be Americans like him are just the sort of immigrants President Obama claims he wants to protect. And as the Guardian notes today, in the first of a three-part reported series, "the journey from south to north, a migration which changed the face of the US, is being reversed". | Indeed, Francisco Vega and many other locked-up or deported would-be Americans like him are just the sort of immigrants President Obama claims he wants to protect. And as the Guardian notes today, in the first of a three-part reported series, "the journey from south to north, a migration which changed the face of the US, is being reversed". |
| American immigrant deportations have now crossed the 2m mark since Obama took office in 2008, the year Francisco was arrested and kicked out of his home. That's more deportations than under any other administration in this country's history, and we're not even half way into the president's second term. Obama has been mostly unapologetic about the massive increase in deportations on his watch – blaming an intransigent congress and Bush-era policies, but after orchestrated nationwide protests, he finally softened his stance a few weeks ago. But he softened it softly, asking his new Homeland Security secretary in a closed-door meeting "to see how it can conduct enforcement more humanely". | |
| Now comes the real pressure on a president who has complained about Congress failing to move on immigration reform but has overseen a mass exodus fuelling a billion-dollar, for-profit detention industry – and destroying millions of lives. Now it's looking like all those arrests were for next-to-nothing. Once again, Obama can't force Congress to act, but it is very much within his power to undo some of the policies adopted and exacerbated by his administration. | Now comes the real pressure on a president who has complained about Congress failing to move on immigration reform but has overseen a mass exodus fuelling a billion-dollar, for-profit detention industry – and destroying millions of lives. Now it's looking like all those arrests were for next-to-nothing. Once again, Obama can't force Congress to act, but it is very much within his power to undo some of the policies adopted and exacerbated by his administration. |
| Earlier this week, a New York Times investigation revealed that over two-thirds of the deportation cases under Obama involved people who, like Francisco Vega, had committed a minor crime – or no crime at all. As the Times hammered home, and as the White House tried to defend, these statistics seriously undermine Obama's assertion during an election debate in October 2012 that the government should be focusing its deportation efforts on "criminals" or "gang bangers" – not going "after folks who are here just because they're trying to figure out how to feed their families". | Earlier this week, a New York Times investigation revealed that over two-thirds of the deportation cases under Obama involved people who, like Francisco Vega, had committed a minor crime – or no crime at all. As the Times hammered home, and as the White House tried to defend, these statistics seriously undermine Obama's assertion during an election debate in October 2012 that the government should be focusing its deportation efforts on "criminals" or "gang bangers" – not going "after folks who are here just because they're trying to figure out how to feed their families". |
| To know why so many immigrants – the immigrants who are not gang bangers – get caught up in deportation proceedings more than ever, you need to know five letters: S-Comm. The so-called Secure Communities Program began under the Bush administration – a month before Obama's election – as a pilot program in just 14 jurisdictions, with the stated purpose of finding and deporting violent criminals, by giving US police and sheriff's departments the authority to enforce immigration law. | To know why so many immigrants – the immigrants who are not gang bangers – get caught up in deportation proceedings more than ever, you need to know five letters: S-Comm. The so-called Secure Communities Program began under the Bush administration – a month before Obama's election – as a pilot program in just 14 jurisdictions, with the stated purpose of finding and deporting violent criminals, by giving US police and sheriff's departments the authority to enforce immigration law. |
| By 2011, the Obama administration had expanded S-Comm to 1,595 jurisdictions nationwide. Enter mass deportation. Out went thousands of immigrants – most of whom, we now know, did not exactly fall into the "hardened criminal" category. | By 2011, the Obama administration had expanded S-Comm to 1,595 jurisdictions nationwide. Enter mass deportation. Out went thousands of immigrants – most of whom, we now know, did not exactly fall into the "hardened criminal" category. |
| An analysis of the S-Comm program by the Warren Institute at UC Berkeley (pdf) also found – surprise, surprise – disturbing evidence of racial profiling and routine violations of immigrant due process rights. | An analysis of the S-Comm program by the Warren Institute at UC Berkeley (pdf) also found – surprise, surprise – disturbing evidence of racial profiling and routine violations of immigrant due process rights. |
| Even before S-Comm became America's deportation machine, due process was something of a luxury for immigrants. The Vega family learned this the hardest way. The family had just started their own business, buying and selling cattle at their home in Oregon, when a local sheriff came by their house one day. He checked on some bovine paperwork, all of which turned out to be in order. But when the sheriff checked Vega's ID against the federal government's immigration database and found a deportation order, he told the Vegas he would have to put Francisco under arrest. This is how his wife, Berenice, described to me what happened next: | |
| I got down on my hands and knees and cried and begged the sheriff not to take him but he said he had no choice. He allowed my husband to get out of the car and I was able to give him a kiss and a hug before he was taken to the jail. I got to see him just once more in the jail. Three days later, he was gone. | I got down on my hands and knees and cried and begged the sheriff not to take him but he said he had no choice. He allowed my husband to get out of the car and I was able to give him a kiss and a hug before he was taken to the jail. I got to see him just once more in the jail. Three days later, he was gone. |
| Francisco got sent back to Mexico, but like many immigrants whose children are American citizens, he soon made his way back to the US to see his kids – even though "illegal reentry" is a federal offense that carries an average sentence of 14 months in prison. According to data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, prosecutions for this offense have increased by 76% since Obama took office. | Francisco got sent back to Mexico, but like many immigrants whose children are American citizens, he soon made his way back to the US to see his kids – even though "illegal reentry" is a federal offense that carries an average sentence of 14 months in prison. According to data analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, prosecutions for this offense have increased by 76% since Obama took office. |
| The Obama solution for taking it easy on "folks who are here just because they're trying to figure out how to feed their families", apparently, has become a combination of deportation proceedings without due process – followed by harsh punishment for trying to watch your kids grow up. | The Obama solution for taking it easy on "folks who are here just because they're trying to figure out how to feed their families", apparently, has become a combination of deportation proceedings without due process – followed by harsh punishment for trying to watch your kids grow up. |
| Francisco was never prosecuted for illegal reentry because, hisimmigration attorney told me, there were "some real due process concerns with his underlying deportation order". Since his return, the Vegas have been trying to resolve the family trauma, but his case got complicated again last year when he was arrested for attending a rooster fight. | Francisco was never prosecuted for illegal reentry because, hisimmigration attorney told me, there were "some real due process concerns with his underlying deportation order". Since his return, the Vegas have been trying to resolve the family trauma, but his case got complicated again last year when he was arrested for attending a rooster fight. |
| Eight months later, Francisco remains in detention. His lawyer says he's confident the Vegas won't face another deportation. But after two decades of struggle, a father's fight to get legalized is very real: Berenice tells me their youngest son's high-school grades have dropped dramatically since his father was detained again. She is exhausted from the burden of having to take over as sole breadwinner, and she says her husband is becoming increasingly withdrawn as he awaits his fate in a lonely prison cell. | Eight months later, Francisco remains in detention. His lawyer says he's confident the Vegas won't face another deportation. But after two decades of struggle, a father's fight to get legalized is very real: Berenice tells me their youngest son's high-school grades have dropped dramatically since his father was detained again. She is exhausted from the burden of having to take over as sole breadwinner, and she says her husband is becoming increasingly withdrawn as he awaits his fate in a lonely prison cell. |
| The Vegas are not alone. According to that report at Berkeley, more than 88,000 families have been impacted by S-Comm. The Obama administration's ramped-up enforcement efforts have led to more than 5,000 American-born children of deported immigrant parents being placed in foster care. | The Vegas are not alone. According to that report at Berkeley, more than 88,000 families have been impacted by S-Comm. The Obama administration's ramped-up enforcement efforts have led to more than 5,000 American-born children of deported immigrant parents being placed in foster care. |
| The emotional and financial drain on these families is huge, of course, but the American taxpayer is paying the price, too, in a very literal way. In 2006, Congress mandated that a minimum of 34,000 federal detention beds must be occupied each day. The House of Representatives, usually loathe to spend a penny on any services that would assist the poor or needy, allocated over $2bn to the Department of Homeland Security in 2014 (slightly more than DHS requested) to cover the rising cost of detention. | |
| The lion's share of these taxpayer dollars will end up, of course, in the hands of private prison companies like the GEO Group and the Corrections Corporation of America, which operate more than half of all immigrant detention centers – and continue to profit handsomely from all this unnecessary suffering. | The lion's share of these taxpayer dollars will end up, of course, in the hands of private prison companies like the GEO Group and the Corrections Corporation of America, which operate more than half of all immigrant detention centers – and continue to profit handsomely from all this unnecessary suffering. |
| Unless the president and his administration officials are serial liars, they cannot possibly be satisfied with the impact of their enforcement policies on the immigrant communities they profess to admire. It's disgraceful that it has taken over five years for Obama to even acknowledge that some softening of these policies might be in order. But now that he has, there are concrete steps the White House can take to stop any further damage. | |
| Obama could begin by dismantling S-Comm – or at least revising the program to ensure that it achieves its original goal of finding and deporting hardened criminals, not just anyone who gets caught with a broken tail light. | Obama could begin by dismantling S-Comm – or at least revising the program to ensure that it achieves its original goal of finding and deporting hardened criminals, not just anyone who gets caught with a broken tail light. |
| He could remove the profit motive from our detention policies. | He could remove the profit motive from our detention policies. |
| He could defer all deportations of non-criminal aliens, just as he did for the so called "Dreamer" population, until immigration reform actually passes and they have their chance to become legal. | |
| Or Barack Obama can do absolutely nothing and run the risk of being remembered in history as the "Deporter-in-Chief" – the president who failed the Latino community that supported both his election efforts, while leaving our broken immigration system in worse shape than he found it. | Or Barack Obama can do absolutely nothing and run the risk of being remembered in history as the "Deporter-in-Chief" – the president who failed the Latino community that supported both his election efforts, while leaving our broken immigration system in worse shape than he found it. |