The lead editorial in Monday's New York Times calls on President Obama to begin work on immigration reform, first by unilaterally tweaking some policies, including deportations of illegal immigrants:
The deportation surge is fed by programs like Secure Communities, which does immigration checks on everyone arrested by local and state law enforcement, and Operation Streamline, in which border crossers in the Southwest are prosecuted en masse, with little access to legal representation. Mr. Obama turned the dragnet on, and can turn it off. In marches and vigils across the country, protesters have made one plea on deportations to Mr. Obama: “Not one more.” He should heed it.
Last week, Obama called on Congress to continue addressing the issue. "It doesn’t make sense," he said in prepared remarks at the White House, "to have 11 million people who are in this country illegally without any incentive or any way for them to come out of the shadows, get right with the law, meet their responsibilities and permit their families then to move ahead. It’s not smart. It’s not fair. It doesn’t make sense. We have kicked this particular can down the road for too long."
