President Obama’s immigration secret

It’s one of the Obama administration’s dirty little secrets: Despite the president’s stated support for immigration reform that would allow for the naturalization of millions of people currently in the country illegally, his administration has aggressively pursued record numbers of deportations, including more than 400,000 in 2012 alone.

Many of these have come as a result of President Barack Obama’s Secure Communities program, which requires police to refer people suspected to have immigrated illegally to federal authorities for possible deportation regardless of the reason for their arrest. Critics have held that the policy has resulted in the needless expulsion of thousands on the basis of nothing more than minor offenses, such as driving without a license. Now, in the wake of the passage of California’s Trust Act, statistics appear to support these claims.

The Trust Act, enacted in January, overrides Secure Communities by prohibiting police from holding individuals for immigration authorities unless they are charged or convicted of a serious offense. The result has been a whopping 44 percent decline in the number of people held for potential deportation in California, according to an Associated Press study.

If Obama truly supports compassionate and rational immigration reform, he should take these numbers as evidence that he should follow California’s lead and amend Secure Communities to stop the mass deportation of minor criminal offenders.