Immigration politics

WE SAY The Bush administration’s policy of jailing illegal immigrants before deporting them should end.

The Bush administration required illegal immigrants to serve their jail sentences in the United States before they were deported.

Of course, those who commit the most serious crimes such as murder or rape should not simply be set free in another country.

However, the Bush jailing policy has resulted in the incarceration of a number of immigrants who have committed much less serious offenses, including falsely identifying themselves to a police officer or drinking in public.

Maintaining prison facilities is a costly endeavor. Generally, we assume it is worthwhile when penal facilities serve to rehabilitate. Ideally, someone with previously undesirable behavior emerges as a productive member of the community.

Jailing illegal immigrants before deportation is simply not cost-effective. Put simply, we are trying to teach people how to live in our society only to banish them from our community.

From a humanitarian standpoint, jailing those who would otherwise face immediate deportation also makes little sense.

Forced into a bureaucratic penal system that many do not understand reduces the contact parents are able to maintain with their children. In a number of recent cases, this lack of contact has resulted in the termination of jailed parents’ custody rights.

The New York Times reported that Encarnacion Bail Romero, a Guatemalan woman accused of abandonment, lost her 2-year-old son when he was adopted to an American couple.

Ending the Bush-era “jail before deportation” policy would do much to ensure that the law does not separate illegal immigrants’ families. Unfortunately, it will do little for those such as Bail, who have already seen the policy’s negative consequences.

Our courts must be sensitive to the unique linguistic and cultural barriers that determine the amount of parental care illegal immigrants are able to provide their children while confined to jail. Immigration politics should focus on our desire to reinforce stability and healthy communities. That ideal is not well served by tearing apart immigrant families.