Immigration Reform 2014: Congressional Hispanic Caucus Calls On Obama To Use ‘All Legal Means Available’ To Broaden Deportation Protections

In a memo addressed to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, the 27 Democrats who make up the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CDC) called on the Obama administration to use “all legal means available” to extend deportation protection to undocumented immigrants. This isn’t the first time the CHC has urged action from the president as House Republicans resist acting on legislation. But the memo does constitute the most extensive list of recommendations on what they think Obama should do in the absence of legislative action. It comes after Obama ordered Johnson to carry out a review in mid-March of ways the agency could make its immigration enforcement policies more humane.

“We write to recommend administrative actions that DHS should take to end the needless separation of American families caused by the deportation of immigrants with strong family ties and deep roots in the United States,” the Caucus wrote in the memo. “The administration should use all legal means available including deferred action (like the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals `DACA’ program) and parole to suspend, delay or dispense with the deportations of immigrants who would qualify for legal status and protection under [the bipartisan Senate immigration reform bill] S. 744.”

As the Washington Post notes, the memo insists that Obama does have the power to expand protections to these groups using prosecutorial discretion, the same legal mechanism by which DACA works. Obama has repeatedly said his power to use that mechanism are too constrained to expand protection to a wider group. The CHC urges him to use it to protect and in some cases restore family unity – parents and other close family members of DACA recipients should also be protected, it argues, in addition to immediate relatives of US citizens. It also recommends that family members who have been forced out of the US should be granted humanitarian parole and eventually become eligible for legal residence.