Obama Deportation Policy: President Orders Immigration Enforcement Review After Facing Pressure From Latino Groups

Latino groups who unleashed a barrage of campaigns aimed at getting the House’s Republican majority to pass an immigration reform bill which benefited immigrants have increasingly turned their sights on President Barack Obama, who they’ve pressured to act unilaterally to halt deportations in light of House GOP obstructionism. On Thursday, they scored a nominal victory when the White House announced that Obama had ordered a review of immigration-enforcement policies “to see how it can conduct enforcement more humanely within the confines of the law”, according to Reuters.

The news comes ten days after a longtime close ally of the president among Hispanic groups -- National Council of La Raza (NCLR) -- broke with its previous loyalist stance on deportations, with NCLR President Janet Murguia deeming Obama the “deporter-in-chief” during an awards dinner and calling on him to suspend deportations. On Wednesday, Obama met with three members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who have made similar calls. One of them, Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.), a longtime advocate for immigration reform among Democrats, said in a statement afterward that he would soon be presenting options to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, who Obama has tasked with heading the review. “It is clear that the pleas from the community got through to the president," Gutiérrez said, adding, “The president clearly expressed the heartbreak he feels because of the devastating effect that deportations have on families."

Others sounded a more skeptical note. "Relief delayed is relief denied," National Day Laborer Organizing Network director Pablo Alvarado said in a statement. The Washington Post notes that the NDLON recently filed a legal petition with DHS formally requesting it to make changes to its deportation policies. "The president has no excuse to continue his unjust deportation policy, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus should not delay joining what is now a consensus position that the president can and should suspend deportations,” Alvarado said.