Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer called the Obama administration’s new policy that will allow many illegal immigrants who don’t have criminal records the chance to stay in the United States “backdoor amnesty.”
In a statement, the Republican governor slammed the planned case-by-case reviews of the approximately 300,000 illegal immigrants who are currently facing possible expulsion.
“This plan amounts to backdoor amnesty for hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of illegal aliens,” Brewer said on Thursday.
Oscar Chacon, the executive director of National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, one of the organizations that led protests against the Obama administration earlier this week about the rising number of deportations, said Brewer “clearly doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
“You really have to be in the imaginary world to paint it as some sort of amnesty,” Chacon told POLITICO.
Last year, the Obama administration deported a record number of people — nearly 400,000. The rising number of deportations has angered the Hispanic community, which is a key voting bloc for President Barack Obama.
While taking aim at Brewer’s comment, Chacon made clear that his organization and those like it don’t see the new policy as a real immigration remedy. The first step, he said, is to end the Secure Communities program, in which local police share fingerprints of detainees with federal authorities and immigration officials.
“One of the political goals of yesterday’s announcement was precisely to distract organizations like ours from the focus on Secure Communities,” he said. “While we commend the announcement, we think it’s very late – why did they have to wait two and a half years?”
Brewer — who called the new deportation plan “especially disturbing” for border states such as Arizona in the wake of U.S. weapon sales to Mexican drug cartels — said Obama’s new policy “got it really wrong.”
“We need to remind President Obama that we elected a president that serves beneath the law and did not anoint a king that is above the law,” she said.
In a statement, the Republican governor slammed the planned case-by-case reviews of the approximately 300,000 illegal immigrants who are currently facing possible expulsion.
“This plan amounts to backdoor amnesty for hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of illegal aliens,” Brewer said on Thursday.
The Obama administration announced Thursday that its top priority will be targeting illegal immigrants with criminal convictions for deportations, and moving low-priority cases — such as young people who were brought to the U.S. as children, military veterans and spouses of military personnel — out of the deportation pipeline.
Brewer, who enacted one of the country’s toughest immigration laws, said the announcement “is encouraging more illegal immigration at the exact moment we need federal focus on border security.” Oscar Chacon, the executive director of National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, one of the organizations that led protests against the Obama administration earlier this week about the rising number of deportations, said Brewer “clearly doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”
“You really have to be in the imaginary world to paint it as some sort of amnesty,” Chacon told POLITICO.
Last year, the Obama administration deported a record number of people — nearly 400,000. The rising number of deportations has angered the Hispanic community, which is a key voting bloc for President Barack Obama.
While taking aim at Brewer’s comment, Chacon made clear that his organization and those like it don’t see the new policy as a real immigration remedy. The first step, he said, is to end the Secure Communities program, in which local police share fingerprints of detainees with federal authorities and immigration officials.
“One of the political goals of yesterday’s announcement was precisely to distract organizations like ours from the focus on Secure Communities,” he said. “While we commend the announcement, we think it’s very late – why did they have to wait two and a half years?”
Brewer — who called the new deportation plan “especially disturbing” for border states such as Arizona in the wake of U.S. weapon sales to Mexican drug cartels — said Obama’s new policy “got it really wrong.”
“We need to remind President Obama that we elected a president that serves beneath the law and did not anoint a king that is above the law,” she said.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61691.html#ixzz1VWBKL99t
