Policy change to deportation of illegal immigrants

This just in from the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will stop deporting and begin granting work permits to younger illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and have since led law-abiding lives. The election-year initiative addresses a top priority of an influential Latino electorate that has been vocal in its opposition to administration deportation policies.

The policy change, announced Friday by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, will affect as many as 800,000 immigrants who have lived in fear of deportation. It also bypasses Congress and partially achieves the goals of the so-called DREAM Act, a long-sought but never enacted plan to establish a path toward citizenship for young people who came to the United States illegally but who have attended college or served in the military.

READ THE ARTICLE: Immunity offered to younger immigrants

I don't care if Obama is trying to win more Latino voters with this move, although it seems probable with the upcoming 2012 presidential race. I hope he had other motives to enact the policy change besides that, but that discussion belongs in another post.

The point of this post is merely to state my opinion of this change: I approve. It seems I've been opining on news a lot recently, and I wish I had more time, day to day, to devote to writing my opinions. Unfortunately, since I don't really (have time) my current mindset is: write what I have to say as quickly as possible and clarify (if necessary) later.

I have to admit, the immigration debate- specifically the way the U.S. government handles illegal immigration- is one issue where I have difficulty seeing from one side's point of view. On one hand, the pro-mercy arguments make sense to me: I don't believe we should split up families by deporting a parent while leaving a child, for example. I don't believe immigrants "take away" as many jobs as some people believe, and I certainly don't believe immigration is bad. To me, the term "American" is applicable to a wide population: how many of you that are reading this right now have ancestors, or close family members, that are immigrants? The chances are good. We have people who originate from all over the world, and yet we call ourselves Americans. We call the U.S. our country and our home, and so it is, but it wasn't always that way.

Time to leave off that particular point, since I could go on all day and I think you take my meaning, which is that we could and should stand to be a little more tolerant of the people we see as illegal, since we were once outsiders ourselves.

Related article: Changing the conversation on immigration

I have more difficulty understanding the pro-justice side, aka all those people who are so protective of our borders that they would throw out undocumented immigrants who have been here most of their lives but never caused a criminal (nor, I contend, an economic) problem. I do understand the reasoning behind deporting undocumented individuals with a criminal history, but I definitely don't believe in breaking up families, sending people back who may not even remember their birth country, and deporting workers who are just trying to make ends meet (whether for themselves, here, or for their families elsewhere), if we can help it.

For that reason, I support the DREAM Act, and I approve of the recent policy change that was the inspiration for this post. I sincerely hope this change stays in place (after all, I have yet to hear the Grand Old Party weigh in on it, and there will likely be a lot of backlash from the pro-justice people, maybe providing enough pressure and criticism to alter the policy again in the future) because I believe it's a step in the right direction.

What is the DREAM Act?

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With respect to my admitted confusion over what I call the "pro-justice side," there are some good levelheaded comments and points made here. Justice and mercy can still have equal parts of the nation's immigration policies.