Illegal Immigrants Cross A Big Hurdle

15 Feb 2013

The US Immigration Department was told last year to go hammer and tongs at illegal immigrants even for minor offenses, not just major ones, so they could increase the number of deportations. This would have been the case had not Presidential elections come in the way, when the scene totally changed. The Hispanic groups, who would have been the target of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had perhaps sensed that their compatriots would be the worst hit if the authorities chased them across the south-western border. So they either reassured the government leaders or somehow convinced them that the Hispanics would overwhelmingly vote for President Barack Obama's re-election. In the event they did. Now, apparently they are in the driver's seat, with the opposition Republicans jumping into the Hispanic bandwagon keeping the 2016 elections in mind, when Obama cannot contest anyway.

Details of ICE's prompting the police and other local authorities to check records even for minor offenses are now trickling in, so that the violators of small offenses could also be identified and illegal immigrants weeded out. The Democratic administration had made all the trappings of deporting convicted criminals central to its immigration policy. That tough policy turned to be a damp squib. Now, the bipartisan approach is to woo back the Hispanics.

There are problems for the Hispanics as well, because even if the illegal immigrants are going to be mollycoddled, they face the risk of going back to their respective nations of origin and stay there for as long as 10 years before they would be invited to come back to be the US Permanent Residents. Right now they are in the shadows, and for the next decade they will be living in all the shades of black.