Obama’s small steps transform enforcement policy

WASHINGTON — Republicans call the changes “amnesty.” Democrats label them “reforms.” And immigration advocates see them as “a beginning.”

Behind the labels is the reality that the Obama administration has gradually overhauled immigration enforcement over the last three years, with nearly two dozen administrative changes that have lightened the day-to-day burden on many immigrants who initially entered the United States illegally.

From targeting business owners instead of employees during worksite raids three months after taking office to offering temporary legal residence to as many as 1.8 million children of undocumented immigrants last week, the administration has repeatedly exercised “prosecutorial discretion” to enact changes without congressional approval or revisions in federal law.

Critics fault the administration for the actions and the way they are being carried out. The administration has embarked on a “reckless amnesty agenda,” said Rep. Lamar Smith, RTexas. But Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano countered that the cumulative changes by the administration reflect an unprecedented effort to transform immigration enforcement into a system “that focuses on public safety, border security and the integrity of the immigration system.”

The administrative changes at the federal level contrast sharply with recent attempts by states such as Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah to crack down on undocumented immigrants. The U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down aspects of Arizona’s aggressive law that required state and local law enforcement to question people about their immigration status during routine police stops.

The targeted federal enforcement is taking place amid a major buildup of law officers along the southwestern border, with 18,500 of the nation’s 21,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents now operating along the 1,969-mile boundary with Mexico.

Experts say Obama’s overhaul of immigration enforcement could help expand his support among Latino voters beyond 70 percent in the race against presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney, a hard-liner on immigration enforcement.

Asizable edge among Latino voters could help Obama carry too-close-to-call battleground states such as New Mexico, Florida, Nevada, Colorado and even Virginia.

Revising immigration enforcement is “a very politically astute move,” says Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University in Houston. “By using the administrative tools at his disposal to provide hope and at least a temporary fix for many undocumented immigrants, President Obama is underscoring the stark contrast and making a convincing case that he is clearly the candidate most sympathetic to their position.”

Not all undocumented immigrants are happy, however, with changes that have included historically high levels of deportations of both criminal and noncriminal aliens.

“These deportations create a climate of fear because people feel vulnerable,” says Nestor Rodriguez, an immigration expert at the University of Texas. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “agents may have wider discretion, but to many immigrants the results are just not showing up in lower numbers.”