http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/pulse-of-the-bay/record-number-deported-under-obama/A Record Number Deported Under Obamastart the discussionPrintEmail
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A record number of illegal immigrants were deported during the 2009 fiscal year, The Washington Post reported today. The deportations were up 10 percent from 2008 and 25 percent from 2007 — the final two fiscal years under President Bush's term.
A total of 400,000 people are expected to be deported this year. And that's only because 400,000 is the maximum number that "the overburdened processing, detention and immigration court system can handle," The Post says, citing an interview with Immigration and Customs Enforcement director John T. Morton.
The Post says that the deportations are part of a "difficult and politically perilous" strategy to convince Republicans to support the president's comprehensive immigration reform agenda.
Deportations under Obama have focused more on identifying undocumented felons in the criminal justice system and sifting through employer audits than on sweeps of work sites.
The Post has been closely following the administration's immigration policy for months. Here's another good read from March on Latinos' disillusionment with Obama.
An NPR blog points out that political reality often interrupts presidents' agendas: "When he pushed an immigration overhaul in 2006 and 2007 that would have included a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, Bush was rebuffed by an anti-amnesty backlash in Congress and the public."
It'll be interesting to see if Obama has enough political capital left to tackle immigration — and soon — with many political observers expecting bills similar to Arizona's to crop up in a number of Western states in time for the 2012 election.