Courtesy of LW Prencipe (CC-BY-SA)
The Obama administration’s recent decision to suspend deportation proceedings for “low-priority” cases is by no means the “A” word — amnesty. Language from high-level conservatives calling this policy “backdoor amnesty” is misleading and irresponsible.
Under the new policy, a group of officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice will review approximately 300,000 pending cases against undocumented immigrants facing deportation. Cases involving immigrants with criminal records will be prioritized in judicial proceedings, and minor cases involving undocumented students, traffic violations and other low-priority immigration offenses will be dismissed.
This low-priority cohort does not pose a threat to national security or public safety. The administration’s announcement applies only to cases already in the system, and seeks to ensure that low-priority cases no longer clog up the already overburdened immigration court system. The policy does not grant legal status to any immigrant; it is an administrative decision to close low-priority cases or decline enforcement action.
The announcement also states that those individuals whose cases are administratively closed will be eligible to apply for a work permit — an “employment authorization document” (EAD). An EAD allows an individual to legally work in the United States, but it does not grant legal status.
After decades of a tacit acceptance of illegal inflows and unauthorized employment, the tragic events of September 11, 2001, turned tougher enforcement into a de facto immigration policy. As the United States continues to face an economic downturn, the need to move beyond enforcement has never been greater. Opinion polls repeatedly show that most Americans favor a combination of aggressive enforcement and “earned legalization.” These two issues along with visa reform proposals are core components of comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). Despite the fact that CIR has been supported by a majority of Americans and by the last two presidents, three consecutive U.S. Congresses have failed to pass a CIR bill. The continuous failure of legislators to act on a sensible comprehensive immigration reform perpetuates the broken immigration system the U.S. has in place. In the meantime, the Obama administration has taken a step in the right direction.
Erika de la Garza is the program director of the Latin America Initiative at the Baker Institute. She is in charge of the Latin America Initiative programs, which include the Americas Project, the U.S.-Mexico Border Program and the Vecinos Lecture Series. Her chief areas of interest include U.S.-Latin American relations; emerging leadership; coalition building between public, private and civil society actors; and trade and business development in Latin America.