Deportations

Earlier this week, new DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson admitted to the House Appropriations Committee that the administration'sclaim of record deportations is based on a different measure than that used by past administrations.

To make its claim, DHS has been counting only deportations conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, however, more than half of those deportations included cases that were opened by the Border Patrol and turned over to ICE. In other words, less than half of Obama's record deportations were a result of interior enforcement efforts.

Still, Pres. Obama has been under immense pressure from pro-amnesty groups, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, to halt all deportations. Earlier this week, Politico reported that the National Council of La Raza has labelled him the 'Deporter-in-Chief.' (Jeremy's blog has more on this story.)

Yesterday, Pres. Obama met with Members from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus after they threatened to introduce a resolution demanding more executive actions to halt deportations. Inresponse to the threat, the White House announced that it would examine whether immigration enforcement can be conducted "more humanely within the confines of the law."

The President emphasized his deep concern about the pain too many families feel from the separation that comes from our broken immigration system. He told the members that he has asked Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson to do an inventory of the Department's current practices to see how it can conduct enforcement more humanely within the confines of the law.

-- White House statement

So, just a few days after Johnson admitted that the administration is reporting inflated deportation statistics, he will now examine ways to reduce deportations even further. Deferred action has already been granted to more than 500,000 illegal aliens through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that started in 2012.