Are Obama deportations truly aimed at 'criminals'?

Patrik Jonsson has written an article for the Christian Science Monitor that asks the question: "Are Obama deportations truly aimed at criminals?"

Jonsson writes that the Obama administration claims it deported a record breaking 216,000 criminal aliens in fiscal year 2011.  This is a reported 89% increase over criminal deportations in 2008. TRAC Immigration, however, has found that current criminal deportations have dropped below those seen under the previous administration.

Jonsson perceptively asks how could it be possible for current levels of criminal deportations to increase if statistics show they are declining?

I was interviewed for the article.

Click here to read it.

Newt Gingrich, Immigration and the Latino Vote in 2012

DREAMer Joaquin Luna's essay: Fulfilling a dream in waiting…

Honda associate issued a Citation for Violating Alabama Immigration Law

It looks like Alabama is fighting World War II all over again.  Last week a German Mercedes-Benz executive was detained for violating Alabama's immigration law, and now this week a Japanese Honda associate has been cited.  

The Alabama law requires police officers to detain individuals that are unable to prove that they are in the United States legally.  Papers, Please.

The charges against Detlev Hager from Mercedes have now been dropped.  I wonder if the unnamed Honda associate will be as lucky.

Reuters reports that Honda has invested $1.4 billion in the State of Alabama, producing 300,000 vehicles per year, and employs 4,000 people.  And yes, that was billion with a B.

Take note Honda: Alabama wants your $1.4 billion, just not your foreign nationals.

Click here for more of the story.

NPR Reports: Romney On Immigration: Sorting Through The Record

House votes to end country limits for skilled workers seeking green cards

The Associated Press reports that The House of Representatives voted yesterday 389-15 to end per-country caps on worker-based immigration visas, and changed family-based visa limits from 7 percent per country to 15 percent per country.

On the employment side this would eliminate the requirement that one country can’t exceed 7 percent of the total number of employment-based visas, changing it to a first-come, first-served basis.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., plans to aggressively move this through the Senate. It will be very interesting to see if it survives a filibuster.

Click here for more information

Thousands of Children Write President Obama asking him to Stop Deporting their Parents

The National Domestic Workers Alliance has kicked off a letter writing campaign entitled "We Belong Together" with a goal of collecting 5,000 letters to be delivered to President Obama calling for the end to deportations so that all families can stay together.

The campaign asks children and youth to write letters about why families should be able to stay together.
This campaign comes on the heels of a Applied Research Center report called "Shattered Families." The report determined that more than 5,000 children of immigrants have become orphans of the foster care system as a result of the deportation of their parents by the Obama administration.

The report further estimates that an additional 15,000 children will lose their parent to deportation over the next five years if Obama continues his aggressive deportation policy.

"We Belong Together" responds to the following:

5.5 million children in the U.S. live with the fear that one or both of their parents could be deported. Over the past ten years, this fear has become a reality for more than 100,000 children.¹ 

This climate of fear affects all of our families and communities. We are writing to invite you to participate in a campaign called A Wish for the Holidays. Together, we will raise the voices of thousands of children with one unified wish: an end to deportations so that all families can stay together.

Click here to see how you can participate.