The End to a Comprehensive Approach to Immigration Reform

I'd say this is a step in the right direction by the Obama administration. However, I imagine it's going to create some bureaucratic nightmares different from but maybe not worse than those that already exist.

In a June 17 memo, Immigration and Customs Enforcement director John Morton outlined 19 separate factors that could warrant the use of "prosecutorial discretion" and prevent certain immigrants from being deported, on a case by case basis.

According to the memo, there is a range of factors that federal agents, attorneys, and other officials should consider in deciding whether or not to pursue an individual undocumented immigrant for deportation. The list of "factors to consider" includes whether they are military veterans and their families, have family ties and "contributions to the community," act as caretakers of the infirm and disabled, are very young or very old, or are pregnant or nursing.

In addition, the Obama administration instructs federal officials to weigh the circumstances of immigrants' arrival to the US—especially if they came as young children—and whether they've graduated from high school, college, or are currently pursuing higher education. The memo explicitly states that no groups of immigrants are categorically excluded from deportation if they fit these criteria. But it emphasizes the need to "warrant particular care" when it comes to particular individuals, while advising officials to target serious felons, repeat offenders, known gang members and immigration fraudsters, and those "who pose a clear risk to national security."

Not that a comprehensive immigration reform push by the administration was likely to pass both the House and Senate anyway, but this signals to me that it is off the table for the foreseeable future. 

Perhaps if Obama intends to go piecemeal on immigration reform, he might reconsider his administration's position on granting temporary protected status to Guatemalans living in the United States. At the very least, the administration should make a decision one way or the other.