It’s Official: We Are an America That Deports 393,000 People a Year

America's Voice Blog

Posted 08/19/10 at 10:26am

Remember candidate Barack Obama? The one who recognized that mass deportation was a failed strategy that tore communities apart, and knew that comprehensive reform was the only lasting solution? The one who said:

"I think it's time for a President who won't walk away from something as important as comprehensive reform when it becomes politically unpopular. And that's the commitment I'm making to you. I marched with you in the streets of Chicago. I fought with you in the Senate for comprehensive immigration reform.

"And I will make it a top priority in my first year as President -- not just because we need to secure our borders and get control of who comes into our country. And not just because we have to crack down on employers abusing undocumented immigrants. But because we have to finally bring those 12 million people out of the shadows.

"Yes, they broke the law. And we should not excuse that. We should require them to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for citizenship, behind those who came here legally. But we cannot and should not deport 12 million people. That would turn America into something we're not; something we don't want to be."

Now, in Obama's second year as President, comprehensive immigration reform appears to be stalled. Even the most reasonable Republicans who once championed comprehensive immigration reform are avoiding the issue, or worse, demanding the repeal of the 14th Amendment. The immigration system is as broken as ever. And the Obama Administration deported a record number of people in FY2009. From the Deseret News:

"Homeland Security released on Wednesday its annual report on immigration enforcement actions for fiscal 2009, which was from Oct. 1, 2008 through Sept. 30, 2009.

"The report said that '393,000 foreign nationals were removed (by formal orders) from the United States — the seventh consecutive record high. The leading countries of origin for those removed were Mexico (72 percent), Guatemala (7 percent) and Honduras (7 percent).'"

It has been widely reported that Latino voters are frustrated with the glacial pace of progress on comprehensive immigration reform and the speedy pace of deportations under Obama's watch.

And with the passage of $600 million in additional border security funds earlier this month, there's no sign that the number of deportations will slow down any time soon.

It's time for a little straight talk, and I hope the President and leaders of both parties are listening. Even at this accelerated rate of deportations, we won't fix the issue of illegal immigration through deportation alone. And in the meantime, we'll have families like Ivan Nikolov's being torn apart by our government enforcing broken immigration laws. This is not the type of country I want to live in; and it doesn't sound like the type of country candidate Obama imagined either. While he can't pass comprehensive immigration reform on his own, he can direct his agency to continue refocusing immigration enforcement on the "worst of the worst," and he can challenge Republicans and Democrats to together as possible and find a way forward on comprehensive immigration reform.

Each of those 393,000 represents an entire family being torn apart--it's not just a statistic. The DHS numbers are a sobering reminder of how our broken immigration laws are breaking apart American families -- and why the issue of comprehensive immigration reform is not just about immigrants, but America.