Obama announced in a meeting readout that he has requested a review of his administration’s enforcement policies for immigration laws to see if that enforcement can be done “more humanely within the confines of the law,” the White House said Thursday. Obama "emphasized his deep concern about the pain too many families feel from the separation that comes from our broken immigration system," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement released after the meeting. In an evening meeting with Latino lawmakers, Obama said he still wanted to push a comprehensive immigration reform package but that, in the meantime, he had asked the head of the Department of Homeland Security to run an "inventory" of the agency’s practices. On Thursday, Obama hosted Gutierrez, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Ruben Hinojosa (D-Texas) and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) for a meeting in the Oval Office. Key lawmakers and immigration reform advocates, highly skeptical that the GOP-led House will take up legislation this year, have upped pressure on the Obama administration to use executive action to suspend deportations they view as unnecessary. Still, advocates were hopeful that Obama will issue a directive similar to one he announced in spring 2012, which deferred deportations for hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children.
– Just how deportation is handled by the US government will get a fresh look: President Obama yesterday ordered a review of deportations to see if they can be carried out "more humanely within the confines of the law," Politico reports. Though no specifics were given, the review, to be conducted by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, comes as Obama has been facing intense pressure from immigration rights activists, who've dubbed him "deporter in chief" due to the record number of deportations under his watch, the Los Angeles Times notes. Obama broke the news in a meeting with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus yesterday. For months the White House had insisted that nothing could be done on the issue unless the comprehensive immigration reform Obama has been pushing was passed by Congress. But as that looks unlikely, Obama has "emphasized his deep concern about the pain too many families feel from the separation that comes from our broken immigration system," White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. "It is clear that the pleas from the community got through to the president," said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, who met with Obama yesterday. "The CHC will work with him to keep families together." Activists tell the New York Times, however, the review isn't likely to go far enough.