Leniency isn’t automatic under new deportation policy

There has been much hope among undocumented immigrants after the Obama administration announced that it would be reviewing roughly 300,000 removal cases and focusing on proceeding on removal in only those cases of the highest priority. Some applauded, while others criticized, this “admistrative amnesty.” Well, the policy to this point has been somewhat uneven, with, as Leslie Berestein Rojas reports, some undocumented immigrants given a reprieve while others are facing removal.

In certain respects, the Obama administration’s policy seems like a version of the old “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” U.S. military rule on homosexuality. Certainly, the message is that undocumented immigrants should not “tell” the U.S. government of their presence in this country, even if they are a low priority in the government’s hierarchy of priorities. If they do, they risk deportation.

KJ