The old Saturday Evening Post used to have a regular feature called “The Perfect Squelch”, in which someone responded to another person – usually an annoying other person – in a way that shut him/her up for once and for all.
In this regard, I thank Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) for the following letter, which he wrote to the New York Times, in reaction to an article which made what Sessions considers palpably false claims regarding the Obama Administration\’s deportation policies.
No excerpts this time. Here is the entire letter:
Tothe Editor:
Yourarticle about immigration enforcement declares that”since President Obama took office, two-thirds of the nearly twomillion deportation cases involve people who had committed minorinfractions, including traffic violations, or had no criminal recordat all.”
Butaccording to data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, more thanhalf of those removals (including two-thirds last year) wereapprehended at the border trying to enter the United Statesillegally, and were not interior deportations.
Interiorremovals – true deportations – have actually declined 40 percentsince 2009, according to ICE data. You therefore create theappearance of a surge in immigration enforcement against “minor”offenders. In reality, 70 percent of the criminal aliens removed fromthe interior of the country last year had felony convictions.
Ialso take issue with your definition of “minor infractions.” ICEdoes not allow agents to begin deportation proceedings when analien\’s only other violation is a civil traffic offense; thetraffic infractions characterized as “minor” involve crimes likeD.U.I. or vehicular manslaughter – hardly something to be shruggedoff.
JEFFSESSIONS Washington, April 8, 2014
Thewriter, a Republican, is a United States senator from Alabama.
Excellent. A complete debunking of the Obama Administration\’s deportation lies, and a much-deserved rebuke to The New York Times for publishing them.
Do Barack Obama and his people ever tell the truth about anything?
