Congress demurred from taking up President Obama’s immigration reform because voters were angry enough with Obamacare’s passage. But a recently released memo from U.S. Citizens and Immigration Services officials reveals the contempt with which the administration holds these voters. Outlining ways in which the government can provide “relief” to illegal immigrants, the memo suggests delaying deportation for some (perhaps even indefinitely) or granting green cards to others. A spokesman for the agency told the Associated Press that this document shouldn’t be “equated with official action or policy,” and represented only “deliberation and exchange of ideas.” But that’s a hard sell: This memo has all the hallmarks of the administration’s refusal to pursue its policy agenda in an open and democratic way.
The memo sheds light on why the Justice Department finds Arizona’s immigration law so odious. The law, popularly passed by the state Legislature and signed into law by the governor, is an effort to address the flow of illegal immigrants into the state by allowing Arizona police officers to detain illegal immigrants. But the police are not empowered to deport the illegals — instead, the detainees are referred to the federal government. This would create a record of the illegal immigrants the administration refuses to deport, making transparent the White House’s efforts to undermine current immigration law.
