My experience with deportation efforts
The Jan. 22 story about Donald Trump deporting “Dreamers” should have been on the editorial page rather than the front page. It is based on assumptions and interviews with people opposed to President Trump.
I directed the Fresno immigration office for 27 years and supervised deportation efforts and immigration benefits. The story assumes the government has the names and addresses of thousands of aliens who failed to appear for deportation hearings.
In my experience, the primary reason for failure to appear at these hearings is the alien moved and did not notify immigration of a new address (usually on purpose). Therefore, any effort to round up these aliens will be a waste of time. If the alien got the notice and failed to appear, he or she probably moved shortly afterward.
The story also mentions “Dreamers” with criminal records. If they have criminal records, they would not qualify for DACA or the Dream Act (had it become law). The story also fails to mention that the Dream Act has been a Republican proposal for about 15 years. It also fails to mention Republican talk of replacing DACA with the Dream Act, which is much better.
Don Riding, Fresno
This story was originally published January 27, 2017 at 3:21 PM with the headline "My experience with deportation efforts."