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The White House announced last Thursday that President Barack Obama had ordered Homeland Security head Jeh Johnson to carry out a review of the agency’s deportation policies “to see how it can conduct enforcement more humanely within the confines of the law.” On Friday, according to the Associated Press, Obama convened 17 labor and immigrant advocates at the White House to discuss administration deportation policies -- which by next month could see 2 million people deported over the president’s time in office -- and possible strategies for getting a comprehensive immigration reform passed.
That same day, the Los Angeles Times reported that officials with Homeland Security were considering two policy changes. The first could slow or suspend deportations of noncitizens who have only been prosecuted for immigration violations. That group makes up a significant percentage of those deportees whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) describes as “criminals” -- according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), over 50 percent of all individuals placed in deportation proceedings in 2013 were charged with “entry without inspection.” Another 31 percent faced other immigration-related charges. Just under half were eventually deported.
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