This is not an immigration issue. This is a humanitarian issue, a refugee issue: people fleeing violence should be treated as such. But the Obama administration has nonetheless kicked off the new year with a series of raids to round up and deport Central American women and children.
Martin O'Malley summed it up best during this video of a Q/A in Iowa Sunday:
"What the hell have we come to as a country that you're talking about rounding up women and children fleeing death gangs at Christmas time?"
Amen, Martin. In fact, both O'Malley and Bernie Sanders came out with strong statements opposing this misbegotten policy when it was first leaked to the Washington Post two weeks ago, just days before Christmas. Unfortunately, the Democratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, was content to let a spokesperson note that the candidate had "real concerns" about the reports.
It's not nearly enough but, yes, Homeland Security Sec. Jeh Johnson's statement Monday is certainly cause for concern. He reports that 121 individuals, including children, were taken into custody this weekend for deportation.
If this is sounding a lot like someone else's immigration plan to you, you’re not alone. Donald Trump has also promised to round people up for deportation, an irony immigration lawyer David Leopold noted in a CNN piece Sunday.
This is something we would expect from a President Trump, not President Obama. [...] It's morally repugnant to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into local communities to arrest and detain vulnerable families, including women and children, and deport them to places where their lives will be threatened by unspeakable violence; [...] Reports such as one in the Guardian recount that undocumented immigrants deported to Central America have faced unspeakable violence, even murder, just days after their return.
These raids are reminiscent of the policies that caused immigration advocates to dub President Obama the "Deporter-In-Chief" just a couple years ago. Hillary Clinton needs to make clear whether she endorses such policies and how she plans to deal with asylum seekers fleeing violence in Central America.
It's both a moral consideration and a political one, as is everything in 2016. And if the moral case isn't persuasive enough, here's a political nugget to chew on: if immigration activists are busy protecting people from raids and deportations, their GOTV efforts are going to be a tad wanting.