Memorandum to the President: The Human Consequences of Immigration Enforcement

Consistent with the “enforcement now, enforcement forever” approach to immigration of his entire administration, President Obama has now decided to deploy the National Guard along the U.S./Mexico border.  No surprises but critics have been quick to respond (and here).  Will the deployment do much of anything in terms of reducing undocumented migration?  Almost definitely not.  It may provide the President some political cover and the administration no doubt will claim that the deployment of troops is necessary politically to secure immigration reform.  But, while the administration pushes enforcement efforts — even the National Guard, where is his leadership and real push on immigration reform?  In the end, we will likely see the increased human costs — and misery — of increased immigration enforcement, which are sketched out generally in this talk that I gave yesterday at the Immigration Law Teachers Workshop 2010 (Download The Human Costs of Immigration Enforcement), with no enforcement benefits. 

KJ