In contrast to the statements on immigration policy from former President, Barack Obama, his administration was responsible for the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants who had committed no other criminal offenses. According to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW), this included many parents of American citizens, resulting in communities and families being torn apart.
The report, titled I Still Need You, suggests that the promising statements made by President Obama towards immigration enforcement were aggressively contradicted by the approach his administration took towards undocumented immigrants. In 2014, Obama gave an address on the ‘broken immigration system’ of the US. He said that enforcement resources would focus on genuine national security threats and that felons, criminals, and gang members rather than families, children, and parents would be the main targets of immigration authorities.
The HRW report found the reality differed from Obama’s promises. 47 percent of undocumented immigrants detained in California from 1 October 2014 to 30 June 2016 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had no criminal record, and 27 percent had only minor offenses, such as drug use or immigration law violations. Nine percent of all immigrant detainees in this period had convictions for a violent crime, according to the report, which uses ICE data.
55 percent of California detainees were deported, and no legal counsel represented 68 percent. Almost 47 percent also had children born in the US, meaning that the deportations destroyed local communities and family links.