Obama Charged with Hypocrisy over Alabama Immigration Law

The Obama administration is facing charges of hypocrisy for fighting a controversial Alabama immigration law while using the measure to arrest and deport illegal immigrants in the state.

Civil rights and Latino advocacy groups laud the Justice Department’s (DOJ) lawsuit challenging Alabama over its newly enacted immigration law, which allows state law enforcement officials to require suspected criminals to show proof of their immigration status.

But the groups blasted the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) continued use in Alabama of the Secure Communities program, which transmits the immigration status records of people arrested in the state to federal authorities. The new state law subjects the Latino community to racial profiling and the Secure Communities program places illegal immigrants who are arrested in line to be deported by DHS, the groups said.

“You have two agencies that are pursuing courses that are inconsistent with each other,” said Joanne Lin, a legislative council for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in an interview.

“In Alabama, DHS is continuing to operate its immigration program, which means you have people who are definitely being processed and referred for deportation. DHS is actively pursuing a program that, in my view, undermines DOJ’s litigation.”

Matt Chandler, a spokesman for DHS, said that the department was keeping close tabs — through its Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties — on whether the civil rights of those arrested under the new law are violated.

Topics: illegal immigration, Obama administration, DHS, Eric Holder, Alabama

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