The American immigration rights advocacy group has accused officials from the Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of setting deportation quotas and obstructing the immigration policies of the Obama administration, calling for the replacement of John Morton, the Assistant Secretary of ICE under the Department of Homeland Security.
Angela G. Salas, Executive Director of the Center for Community Change in Washington, stated: "ICE is out of control and needs to be reined in. This agency, responsible for enforcing U.S. immigration laws, systematically deceives the President and the American public."
The Washington Post reported last weekend that Morton issued a memorandum on February 22 criticizing ICE for its slow pace of deportations, which fails to meet the target of deporting 400,000 individuals annually. The memorandum also proposed several measures to reverse this trend. Morton's memorandum indicated that ICE is deporting an average of 437 non-criminal immigrants per day, which would amount to approximately 160,000 deportations in a year, less than half of the established target of 400,000, although deportations of criminals have increased.
The Center for Community Change and several other groups are calling for President Obama to replace Morton. They argue that Morton's memorandum "clearly contradicts" his previous statements that ICE does not set deportation quotas and also contradicts the established position of the Obama administration: primarily deporting undocumented immigrants with violent criminal records. Following the Washington Post's report, Morton issued a statement saying that the memorandum was released by other officials without his permission and has been "withdrawn and corrected."
Immigration rights advocates in Los Angeles also condemned the memorandum for violating the Obama administration's commitment: that immigration enforcement primarily targets criminals and employers who exploit immigrants. In reality, most of those being deported are law-abiding, working-class immigrants and their families.
Angela G. Salas, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Alliance for Immigrant Rights, stated that the government "chooses to deport hard-working individuals and tear apart their families," emphasizing that this is unacceptable, especially coming from a President whose father was an immigrant.