Immigration Crackdown Debated
Professor Jennifer Chacon, an immigration law expert, is quoted in The Christian Science Monitor on immigration enforcement. According to the story, deportations over the last year are up 10 percent. Worksite enforcement arrests have gone from under 1,300 in 2005 to more than 4,300 this year. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has nearly doubled its number of detention spaces in the past year.
A backlash of lawsuits are cropping up that claim the ICE is crossing the line in regards to constitutional rights. "Regulations authorize ICE to take action when they have a reasonable suspicion of a violation," says Chacon. "What this does is it creates the ability for them to carry out enforcement actions in a way that are less court scrutinized than criminal investigations."