Democrats furious over Obama administration deportations
AP, Washington :
Congressional Democrats confronted White House officials on Thursday over holiday-season raids seeking Central American immigrants for deportation, accusing the administration of spreading terror through immigrant communities.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez said that President Barack Obama risks all the goodwill he has built up over the last year through his executive actions sparing millions from deportation, actions now tied up in court. And he complained that the administration did not alert congressional allies before conducting the raids, which first became public when The Washington Post published a story about the plans just before Christmas.
Gutierrez and other lawmakers raised those complaints and others during a meeting with administration officials, including Cecilia Munoz, director of the Domestic Policy Council.
“In the Hispanic Caucus there’s a real sense of outrage,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said he pointed out to Munoz that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, running on an anti-immigrant platform, has praised the raids – and taken credit for them.
“Look, what I said to her is, I said, ‘Think about it a moment. Donald Trump is praising your public policy on immigration. You should need no further evidence of how wrong it is,'” Gutierrez said.
Separately, at a news conference in Las Vegas, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said that he’d contacted the Homeland Security Department “to have them just back off till we can find out a better way to do this.”
A White House spokesman, Peter Boogaard, declined to comment beyond a statement Monday issued by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. In that statement, Johnson said that 121 people with final orders of removal, who had exhausted their legal claims and remedies, had been targeted for removal. “This should come as no surprise. I have said publicly for months that individuals who constitute enforcement priorities, including families and unaccompanied children, will be removed,” Johnson said.
Despite the small numbers involved Democrats say the publicity around the holiday-season raids has reverberated throughout immigrant communities.
Congressional Democrats confronted White House officials on Thursday over holiday-season raids seeking Central American immigrants for deportation, accusing the administration of spreading terror through immigrant communities.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez said that President Barack Obama risks all the goodwill he has built up over the last year through his executive actions sparing millions from deportation, actions now tied up in court. And he complained that the administration did not alert congressional allies before conducting the raids, which first became public when The Washington Post published a story about the plans just before Christmas.
Gutierrez and other lawmakers raised those complaints and others during a meeting with administration officials, including Cecilia Munoz, director of the Domestic Policy Council.
“In the Hispanic Caucus there’s a real sense of outrage,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez said he pointed out to Munoz that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, running on an anti-immigrant platform, has praised the raids – and taken credit for them.
“Look, what I said to her is, I said, ‘Think about it a moment. Donald Trump is praising your public policy on immigration. You should need no further evidence of how wrong it is,'” Gutierrez said.
Separately, at a news conference in Las Vegas, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said that he’d contacted the Homeland Security Department “to have them just back off till we can find out a better way to do this.”
A White House spokesman, Peter Boogaard, declined to comment beyond a statement Monday issued by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. In that statement, Johnson said that 121 people with final orders of removal, who had exhausted their legal claims and remedies, had been targeted for removal. “This should come as no surprise. I have said publicly for months that individuals who constitute enforcement priorities, including families and unaccompanied children, will be removed,” Johnson said.
Despite the small numbers involved Democrats say the publicity around the holiday-season raids has reverberated throughout immigrant communities.
