{"id":7443,"date":"2014-08-18T11:14:41","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T15:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=7443"},"modified":"2018-12-28T14:47:13","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T19:47:13","slug":"this-date-in-obamas-administrative-amnesty-august-18-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2014\/08\/18\/this-date-in-obamas-administrative-amnesty-august-18-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"This Date in Obama\u2019s Administrative Amnesty: August 18, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ThisOn August 18, 2011, then Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano wrote a letter<\/a> to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announcing that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would implement a backdoor amnesty program. \u00a0Four months before, the Senator had asked<\/a> the Administration to halt deportations of those who would have qualified for amnesty under the Dream Act, even though that amnesty had failed<\/a> to pass Congress the year before.<\/p>\n

The letter, which essentially granted Sen. Reid\u2019s request, explained that DHS would establish an \u201cinteragency working group to execute a case-by-case review\u201d of all pending and incoming deportation cases. The review was intended to ensure that proceedings only continue against aliens who fall under the Department\u2019s \u201cpriorities.\u201d Napolitano promised that DHS and DOJ attorneys, in addition to other personnel, would identify \u201clow-priority\u201d deportation cases at every stage of the process that should be considered for an exercise of discretion. She also stated that she would issue guidance to prevent \u201clow-priority\u201d cases from even entering the system in the first place.<\/p>\n

The Administration then proceeded to implement this backdoor amnesty city by city, starting with pilot programs in late 2011 in Baltimore<\/a> and Denver, then<\/a> proceeding to Detroit, Seattle, New Orleans, Orlando, and San Francisco<\/a> before a year had passed. The number of cases dismissed through this backdoor amnesty policy reached 28,983<\/a> by the end of 2013.<\/p>\n

But the policy did not go unnoticed. Word of a new amnesty spread quickly among illegal alien communities<\/a>, leading very soon to the start of the surge of unaccompanied minors across the border that has now reached crisis<\/a> proportions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read more at FAIR\u2019s President Obama\u2019s Record of Dismantling Immigration Enforcement<\/a>.