Deporting parents to win votes

Ruben Navarrette Jr.

San Jose Mercury News

The Obama administration’s “heartless” immigration policies are tearing thousands of families apart, said Ruben Navarrette Jr. Illegal immigrants raising children born in the U.S. are being thrown out of the country at an unprecedented rate. In the first half of this year, the Obama administration deported 46,000 parents with U.S.-born children. This is a dramatic departure from the policies of past administrations, which rarely deported parents with kids who were born here.

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What happens today when Mom and Dad are collared by the authorities? Often, their blameless kids are simply “dumped” into foster care. At least 5,100 U.S.-born children suffered that fate in the first half of this year. “What crime did they commit? Not a single one.”

The White House blames a broken immigration system. But the reality is that the president has quite intentionally deported 1.2 million people—tearing children away from their parents’ arms—to “score political points with voters.” That’s politics, cynics might say. “But for the families that have been destroyed, it’s all about pain.”