What will President Obama’s order to Immigration and Customs enforcement to halt the arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants mean to Nassau County?
No one knows exactly. Thousands of Mexican, Guatemalan and other Latino immigrants under the age of 30 have been living here under cover for fear of deportation. Finally they can come out of the shadows.
It is estimated that some 800,000 immigrants nationwide will be affected by the policy change at Homeland Security.
Last Friday Obama ordered ICE to call off the dogs in a controversial speech in the Rose Garden. The two-year reprieve will apply to those immigrants who arrived in the U.S. before turning 16, who have been in the country for at least five years, and are under the age of 30.
He noted that children of illegal immigrants “study in our schools, play in our neighborhoods, befriend our kids, pledge allegiance to our flag. It makes no sense to expel talented young people who are, for all intents and purposes, Americans.”
Obama’s policy of “prosecutorial discretion” is designed to focus on the deportation of known criminals, not students or immigrants with no criminal record. For more than a decade overwhelmed ICE agents have focused on the worst criminals such as sex offenders. ICE does not have the manpower or jail cells to go after every illegal immigrant but until last Friday the cloud of fear hung over every illegal immigrant.
Count on the Long Island Tea Party to become apoplectic. They already blame illegal immigration for nearly all of the problems facing this country. But they cannot dislike the Obama Administration more than they already do. And they cannot say the administration is not following the law because, for two years, the law is changed.
We hope that the policy change will lead to the passage of the Dream Act, which will grant amnesty to many now considered to be “illegal aliens” and make it possible for these people to take the first step in becoming U.S. citizens.
This, accompanied by the strengthening of controls at the borders is the compassionate solution to the “immigration problem.” We are not persuaded by those who argue that offering a path to citizenship for those brought into the country illegally as children simply rewards the parents’ law-breaking.
We are persuaded by the reality that thousands of young people who entered this country with their parents as children are living in fear of deportation. Obama’s directive will put an end to that. Passage of the Dream Act will give that protection the power of law.
There is no downside to the president’s announcement. The public schools are already offering an education to the “illegals” and the hospitals are offering them medical care. The Mexican immigrants have shown that they are willing to work hard for low pay.
Obama’s announcement was a major step in the right direction.
