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Obama Administration Announces Plans for Case-by-Case Deportation Reviews

The Obama administration has announced plans to conduct case-by-case reviews of all immigrants facing deportation. The move is expected to ease the way for undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children and have already spent years in the country to stay and work legally. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano revealed the new policy in a letter to Senators Dick Durbin and Richard Lugar. In April, the senators sent a letter to Napolitano asking her to stop deportations of immigrant students who could earn legal status under the proposed DREAM Act. The new policy was announced just days after a group of Latino groups held a nationwide day of protest against the administration’s deportation policy. The Obama administration has overseen a record number of deportations in each of the past three years. Under the new policy, administration officials have acknowledged the actual number of immigrants deported is not expected to decrease.
The National Immigration Law Center praised the new policy, but expressed concern over what will happen to immigrants already being detained for low-level offenses and minor traffic violations as a result of the Secure Communities program. Meanwhile, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, slammed the new policy as a form of "backdoor amnesty."