A group of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents filed a lawsuit against their own agency Thursday, arguing that the Obama administration is not letting them fully identify and deport illegal immigrants.
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano says her department does not have the manpower or money to deport the 11 million illegal immigrants in the USA, so she issued a memorandum last year ordering immigration officials to focus their efforts on dangerous illegal immigrants. In June, Obama
announced a program that will allow up to 1.7 million illegal
immigrants brought to the USA as children to have deportations deferred
for at least two years.
The 10 ICE agents suing Napolitano and ICE Director John Morton say those directives violate the Constitution and federal immigration law. "We are federal law enforcement
officers who are being ordered to break the law," said Chris Crane, an
ICE agent and president of the National Immigration and Customs
Enforcement Council, a union for ICE employees. "This directive puts ICE
agents and officers in a horrible position."
ICE spokesman Ross Feinstein did not comment on the lawsuit but said
more than half of the nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants deported in 2011
had been convicted of crimes, the largest number in the agency's
history. He said that shows the decision to focus on the most dangerous
illegal immigrants is a policy that works, and June's decision to defer
deportation for young illegal immigrants enhances that strategy.
No comments:
Post a Comment