My initial reaction to the piece was that there was a lack of analysis of what Muñoz has been saying. More specifically, Ms. Muñoz has been telling us that more than half of the people who have been removed are serious criminals when other data suggests that they aren’t. And then there’s the issue of Muñoz addressing DHS’s prioritization of removals when new evidence suggests that the application of deportation prioritization are inconsistently applied. So there’s a disconnect in the policy implementation where the folks on the ground are pursuing a different course of action from what the leadership (people like Muñoz) are publicly saying.

In the eyes of many immigration policy observers, the administration and Cecilia Muñoz, since she’s part of it, continue to have a credibility problem. As more people shed light on this issue of who is being deported and for what, look for more people to publicly question what has been going on with the Secure Communities program and deportations given the goals of DHS. The scrutiny may even ramp up if more US citizens are caught in the deportation dragnet.

Word is that the White House is considering Cecilia Muñoz to replace Melody Barnes as President Obama’s domestic policy chief. So ultimately, Muñoz will have to decide whether she wants to continue to be part of an administration that some feel is “worse than Bush” on immigration. Because of her previous advocacy in immigration, people will continue to focus on what she says when she’s tasked with discussing immigration on behalf of the President.

Two DREAMers Jonathan Perez and Isaac Barrera challenged ICE directly in Mobile, Alabama and have been detained. Check out the clip below:

There are some, who want Ms. Muñoz to set the record straight about the statistics she has been citing about the people who have been deported, and there are some folks in the community who feel that calls on Muñoz to clarify those remarks are unjust. Last night apparently, famed labor activist Dolores Huerta weighed in on this at the LATISM conference saying that the attacks on Muñoz are unjust.

How do you solve a problem like Cecilia?

Activists say Obama aide Cecilia Munoz has ‘turned her back’ on fellow Hispanics

Calling the Question: Why Cecilia Muñoz is not the issue (An interesting rebuttal to the first piece listed “How do you solve…” attacking a writer for being critical of Muñoz.)

Plainly, there is a credibility problem with the immigration issue in the administration.

What are your thoughts? Are the criticisms of Cecilia Muñoz and the administration valid, or should people ignore the messenger and just focus on the bigger picture and problems with the current immigration situation? Does Dolores Huerta’s message to “defend Cecilia Muñoz” resonate with you? Do you think Huerta would be asking people to defend the messenger of the administration’s policies if that person was not Latina or did not have a background in immigration advocacy?

So I found it interesting that today the Obama administration used one of the Latinas working in the White House, Julie Rodriguez, the granddaughter of Cesar Chavez and daughter of UFW President Arturo Rodriguez, to defend its actions on the immigration issue. Ms. Rodriguez, who is currently associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, offered a gathering of Latinos at a summit hosted by the administration in California’s Inland Empire this:

“The priority … is we are enforcing our laws and focusing on those who pose a national security threat or public safety threat.”

Apparently, this message and others did not go over well with the Inland Empire crowd according to the Los Angeles Times.

What do you think? Will the message that is coming from Julie Rodriguez and the Obama administration win out and resonate with the community? Or will organizations like the United Farm Workers and Presente.Org, who have been advocating against programs like Secure Communities, have more credibility?

As reported by American University Public Radio:

“During a national conference call, activists who represent young undocumented immigrants say many local ICE offices are not following the memo from DHS boss Janet Napolitano dated June 17th . They say removal proceedings against young people eligible for the DREAM act continue. This is the same charge that was made by CASA de Maryland protesters during a rally outside DHS headquarters on Wednesday.

ICE says its prosecutors have been given the discretion to prioritize deportation cases. A young man narrowly escapes deportation but as Armando Trull reports activists are claiming he may be in the minority.”

The Department of Homeland Security needs to tighten up its processes and have more accountability. For over two years, there have been various reports of ICE agents “going rogue”. Focusing efforts on removing people who are not supposed to be targeted doesn’t reflect well on the organization.

Compounding the DREAMer situation are reports of an immigration raid that took place in July on the grounds of a Catholic Church in Detroit. These kinds of situations won’t play well with pro-migrant voters as Obama begins to campaign in earnest.

For those of you who follow media, you may know Jose Antonio Vargas as a journalist who had been at The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, and has had the privilege of interviewing high profile celebrities and leaders. Like many others, I enjoyed reading his profiles and his pieces about technology and society. Vargas was even part of The Washington Post team that earned a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting on the Virginia Tech shootings.

Like many young people who are undocumented, Vargas found out about his status while in high school although he had been in the US since the age of 12 having arrived from the Philippines. Since discovering that he was an undocumented immigrant, he has relied on a network or “an underground railroad” that has helped provide cover for him so that he could finish school and obtain work. With a fake passport and a photocopied Social Security card, Vargas was able to navigate the employment system. He even knowingly checked off the citizenship box on I-9 employment eligibility forms despite feeling a strong sense of guilt for doing so.

Vargas explains:

“For more than a decade of getting part-time and full-time jobs, employers have rarely asked to check my original Social Security card. When they did, I showed the photocopied version, which they accepted. Over time, I also began checking the citizenship box on my federal I-9 employment eligibility forms. (Claiming full citizenship was actually easier than declaring permanent resident “green card” status, which would have required me to provide an alien registration number.)

This deceit never got easier. The more I did it, the more I felt like an impostor, the more guilt I carried — and the more I worried that I would get caught. But I kept doing it. I needed to live and survive on my own, and I decided this was the way.”

This admission of deceit at this level is going to make many uncomfortable — even those who may be more sympathetic to undocumented workers and open minded about reforming the immigration system. I will admit that I felt a little uneasy when I first read Vargas’ story this morning, especially in light of all of the recent news about professional journalists being laid off from their jobs. For all these years, this guy was “gaming the system” in a profession where ethics and guarding sensitive information and sources are paramount. Yet at the same time, Vargas’ story is one of a young person trying to prove his “worthiness as an American” with hard work and perseverance. And he does explain how guilty he felt for continuing the lies and has apologized to employers for doing so.

As I see it, there are many shades of grey in this situation, and Vargas’ admission is definitely going to spark debate. I doubt that the Obama administration’s Department of Homeland Security will want to make an example of Vargas by throwing him into deportation proceedings given his public prominence, but where does that leave the other undocumented people who aren’t Pulitzer Prize winners and who don’t have friends in high places who are willing to vouch for their work and character? Much like the larger American community, you have the dynamics of privilege playing out with those who are undocumented.

I encourage you to check out the video below of Jose Antonio Vargas sharing his story as he attempts to “Define American“, and do share your thoughts:

A few weeks ago on Warren Olney’s public radio show, Sheriff Baca even went to far as to say that undocumented people are not afforded any protections by the Constitution:

“The show’s host, Warren Olney, pressed Baca on the issue of noncriminals being identified and deported through Secure Communities.  He referenced the case of a woman who had called 911 and had been arrested along with her husband in a domestic violence case.  The woman was never convicted of a crime, but was discovered to be undocumented and was taken into ICE custody for deportation proceedings.  Baca inaccurately insisted that she had committed a crime.  Olney pointed out that she was accused of committing a crime, but was never convicted.  When the host mentioned that everyone is presumed innocent until convicted, Baca said “that’s true if you’re an American citizen.”  Olney then asked “So you’re saying that if people are here illegally, they simply are not subject to the kinds of civil rights protections that American citizens are?” To which Baca responded, “That’s basically correct.”

Legal experts have pointed out that the U.S. Constitution makes no distinction between legal and unauthorized immigrants, and that the protections of the Constitution apply to all persons, regardless of race, religion, sex, national origin, or immigration status.  Seeing that Sheriff Baca’s job is to uphold the U.S. Constitution, his comments are deeply disturbing.”

This is the same Sheriff Baca who has displayed a bit of a problem with accepting gifts and who is facing criticism for his department’s management or lack thereof of the county jails. The LA Sheriff’s department is already having issues and is receiving complaints about its ability to jail inmates and handle visitors to the jails, and now Lee Baca is making statements indicating that he’s also a judge in immigration cases determining who qualifies for Constitutional protections. This is disturbing for Los Angeles County residents.

Yesterday in a press release, NCLR commented:

“…we hope and expect that the White House will go beyond speeches and meetings and take meaningful action. As record levels of detention and deportation continue to soar, families are torn apart, innocent youth are being deported, and children are left behind without the protection of their parents. Such policies do not reflect American values and do little to solve the problem. We can do better.”

The National Day Laborer Organizing Network added:

“Like Congressman Luis Gutierrez though, we all want to feel the same sense of hope and optimism we felt in 2008. However, words alone will no longer be enough. The President must earn Latinos’ support through actions that move the country toward a policy granting us political equality, through the regularization of our immigrant families’ status. The goal contained in Arizona’s SB1070, the criminalization of immigrants, is mutually exclusive with the goal of legalization. While Republicans have coelesced on a nativist position that will be shamed by history, it is not sufficient for the President to simply blame Congress for inaction. The President must lead by example, and we will measure his commitment to immigration reform by taking stock of his actions.If the President seriously wants to move the debate forward, he can start by answering the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s call to freeze the misguided Secure Communities as a first step.”

In San Francisco, California, the Sheriff will begin releasing low level undocumented people from its prisons beginning on June 1. San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey cites the city’s local sanctuary law:

“The new policy, set to begin June 1, is meant to uphold San Francisco’s sanctuary ordinance, which prohibits local officials from assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement with enforcing immigration laws unless it involves a felony.

“I’m trying to enforce San Francisco’s city of refuge law,” Hennessey said. “The city of refuge law says we are not supposed to comply with federal officials except with felonies. I’m just doing our best to enforce local law. That’s my job.””

President Obama is scheduled to deliver a speech on immigration in Texas this week. It will be interesting to see if advocates turn out to protest and raise awareness about the confusion and inconsistencies of the administration’s Secure Communities program.

What are your thoughts? Do you think President Obama will receive a warm and receptive crowd in Texas or will activists turn up the pressure? Or do you think that the President will respond more to the anti-immigrant crowd with more “boots on the border” rhetoric?

Well, the White House is taking this message of continuing down enforcement road (and not stopping the deportations that many are asking to be halted) a step further by asking some members of Congress to not attend a news conference that took place last week where some law makers and advocates were advocating for administrative relief.

Bloomberg reports:

‘Several members of Congress who were scheduled to attend a March 31 news conference on the issue said administration officials contacted them to voice concern about their participation. Until U.S. immigration law is overhauled, the lawmakers say, Obama should use his executive power to protect families facing deportation or separation because at least one parent is an illegal immigrant.

“The staffers that are attached to us, the liaisons, they transmitted some concern,” said Representative Mike Honda of California, a former chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, referring to the White House legislative affairs office. “They would have loved us not to have gone to the press conference.”

Honda, a Japanese-American, attended with other officials, including Asian and black lawmakers, even after getting a call, because it’s “not only about Hispanics,” he said. “I want to broaden that so people don’t think just brown.”’

The White House is taking a risk in asking members to not attend press conferences like these and to ease up on their own advocacy. However, I think that this calculation was made with the notion that undocumented people aren’t eligible to vote anyway and that issues such as the economy and education tend to be listed as priorities for Latinos, while it has only been rather recent that immigration has emerged as a top issue. This calculated risk could backfire if more states pass Arizona-style laws, and the immigration issue continues to be at the forefront of the priority list for Latino registered voters.