Activists are furious about a leaked government memo calling for more deportations of undocumented immigrants.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
The Miami Herald
March 31, 2010
A leaked memo about the Obama administration's strategy in deporting undocumented immigrants has outraged immigrant right activists who want the president to fire a top immigration official.
The activists, including two from South Florida, demanded the dismissal Tuesday of John Morton, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"He must fire Morton now," said María Rodríguez of Florida Immigrant Coalition, one of several immigrant rights activists who spoke during a conference call with reporters arranged by Washington-based Fair Immigration Reform Movement on Tuesday.
Jonathan Fried, head of WeCount! in Homestead, joined the effort to remove Morton when he spoke to El Nuevo Herald during a telephone interview after the conference call.
He cited the case of a south Miami-Dade Mexican mother -- with two U.S.-born children -- who was deported a few months ago after being stopped by the police for not having a driver's license. "She had no criminal record," he said.
The memo, authored by James M. Chaparro, director of ICE's Detention and Removal Operations, complained about dwindling noncriminal deportations and outlined new goals for ICE agents charged with apprehending undocumented immigrants in order to boost the number of deportations.
News of the memo was first reported by The Washington Post and the Center for Investigative Reporting.
Activists are furious because the memo contradicts ICE's strategy shift under Obama to go after foreign convicts while deemphasizing work-site raids and arrests of undocumented foreign nationals with no criminal records.
ICE officials have since issued a statement saying that portions of the memo published by The Washington Post ``did not reflect our policies'' and were corrected or withdrawn.
"We are strongly committed to carrying out our priorities to remove serious criminal offenders first and we definitively do not set quotas," the statement said.
Though Morton withdrew the Chaparro memo, activists remain unconvinced ICE will stop going after undocumented immigrants with no criminal records.
ICE officials, for their part, are mum on calls for Morton's dismissal.
"We are declining comment," Brian P. Hale, ICE's public affairs director, told El Nuevo Herald.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/31/1555963/deportation-memo-spurs-call-for.html#ixzz0jr6BoecD
