Obama Administration Plan Lauded as Sensible, Smart, and Humane
The Obama Administration’s announcement that it will bring its deportation practices in line with common sense law enforcement priorities has generated overwhelmingly positive reactions from editorial boards across the nation. They are lauding this step as sensible, humane, and smart law enforcement policy—and reminding Congress that it needs to do its job and pass comprehensive immigration reform. Below, find a sampling of their reactions:
- Washington Post: The Administration Gets Its Priorities Right on Deportation: “The kind of comprehensive reforms needed to address problems in the immigration system can be authorized only by Congress. In the meantime, the administration’s initiative is a lawful and sensible step. The executive branch has broad discretion in deciding which immigration cases to pursue, and the administration has correctly determined that not all undocumented immigrants are the same. The nation does not have the means or the will to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants; it ought to concentrate on those who really are causing trouble.”
- Salt Lake Tribune: Toss the Bad Apples: “With limited resources comes the responsibility to allocate them wisely. That’s what the Obama administration is proposing to do. It will review each deportation case with an eye to tossing the bad guys out of the country and leaving the small fish alone. That’s just good policing.”
- Denver Post: Sensible Step on Deportation: “Obama has been much tougher than his predecessors in terms of tightening our border security and deporting non-citizens. Congress continues to fail the country by refusing to adopt comprehensive immigration reform policy. A plan that offers administrative relief instead of turmoil to people whose sole crime is being in the country illegally strikes us as a workable alternative until the bigger picture is addressed.”
- Charlotte Observer: Immigration Policy Change Sensible, Right: “Under a new policy, many of these immigrants – primarily young people – will likely get to stay in the U.S. as the Department of Homeland Security backs off deporting them and focuses on criminals and serious violators of immigration law. This is a bold move – and it’s the right one.”
- Sacramento Bee: A Compassionate and Sensible Step on Immigration: “It’s not amnesty, back-door or otherwise. It’s just a little more sanity in our broken immigration system.”
- New Orleans Times-Picayune: Focusing Deportation Efforts: “This measure is not the comprehensive solution to our nation’s immigration problems — a solution that should pair stricter enforcement with a path to legalization for immigrants who have lived here for years. But as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops noted, this new policy ‘is consistent with the teaching of the church that human rights should be respected, regardless of an immigrant’s legal status.’”
- New York Times: Toward Immigration Sanity: “The White House has just taken a large step toward a more sensible and lawful policy on illegal immigration… The new approach acknowledges that this country is squandering law-enforcement resources on deporting tens of thousands of people who work hard, pay taxes and build families.”
- Los Angeles Times: Obama’s Promising Move on Immigration: “This is a sensible plan that offers at least temporary relief for deserving students, veterans, the elderly, crime victims and those with family — including same-sex partners — in the United States. It should not substitute for broader reform, but it will relieve some needless suffering until such a measure passes, as it must.”
According to Lynn Tramonte, Deputy Director of America’s Voice Education Fund, “Republicans in Congress are already attacking this new policy, putting immigration politics ahead of smart law enforcement policy. It’s just plain common sense – in a world of finite resources, we should focus immigration enforcement on bad guys, not young people who’ve grown up in America and know no other home.
“Rep. Lamar Smith and other critics of this policy won’t be happy until we deport every man, woman, and child without papers in America—all 11 million of them. That’s an ugly, impractical, and costly proposal. The Administration is right to direct finite resources toward high-priority cases. Smith and others should do their job, and pass common sense immigration reform.”
America’s Voice Education Fund — Harnessing the power of American voices and American values to win common sense immigration reform.
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