Under new rules adopted by the Obama administration last year, deportation will now be reserved for undocumented felons, national security risks or repeat immigration offenders. Undocumented immigrants guilty of only minor legal violations and who have long and substantial ties in the United States would have their deportation cases set aside. The policy shift addresses one of the major concerns of the U.S. bishops. They have long argued that immigrant families should not be broken up over small offenses. The change is “a potential seismic shift in enforcement,” said Geoffrey Scowcroft, an attorney who manages immigration legal services for Catholic Charities in Oregon. “We are in the very early stages of this, but this policy is as close to good news as we have seen in years,” he said. The Department of Homeland Security described the new discretion as a way to unclog immigration courts, which are now backlogged with more than 300,000 cases.
In 2012, Fewer Deportations Likely
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
Around the affluent world, new hostility, resentment and anxiety has been directed at immigrant populations that are emerging as preferred scapegoats for all manner of political and socio-economic shortcomings.
“Each day is becoming more difficult, but we do not surrender,” Father Igor Boyko, 48, the rector of the Greek Catholic seminary in Lviv, told Gerard O’Connell. “To surrender means we are finished.”
Many have questioned how so many Latinos could support a candidate like DonaldTrump, who promised restrictive immigration policies. “And the answer is that, of course, Latinos are complicated people.”
Catholic voters were a crucial part of Donald J. Trump’s re-election as president. But did misogyny and a resistance to women in power cause Catholic voters to disregard the common good?