CRITICS: OBAMA DEPORTING MANY NO-THREAT IMMIGRANTS

Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) - Friday, April 23, 2010

Author: Ken Dilanian Tribune Washington Bureau

- When the Obama administration went before California's 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year seeking to deport a middle-class couple from Nevada, one judge criticized the government's case as "horrific." Another labeled it the "most senseless result possible." A third complained of "an extraordinarily bad use of government resources."

"These people have worked hard. They have paid their taxes," Judge William Fletcher said. "Why don't you go after the bad guys?"

The three-judge panel concluded it had to grant the government's request to expel the couple. Yet the panel's two Republicans and one Democrat each urged immigration authorities to drop the case against Ulises Martinez-Silver and Saturnina Martinez, a carpenter and a clerk.

It's one of many examples, immigrant rights advocates say, of how the Obama administration has continued a policy of tough enforcement against people who are no threat to the United States, even as the administration calls for a new immigration law designed to legalize many of them.

Posted By: Ayanna Spikes

Edition: Broward Metro
Section: News
Page: 3A
Dateline: WASHINGTON
Record Number: 1004220365
Copyright 2010, Sun Sentinel Company. All rights reserved.

CRITICS: OBAMA DEPORTING MANY NO-THREAT IMMIGRANTS
Tribune Washington Bureau, Ken Dilanian. "CRITICS: OBAMA DEPORTING MANY NO-THREAT IMMIGRANTS." Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) 23 Apr. 2010, Broward Metro, News: 3A. NewsBank. Web. 24 Apr. 2010.