WATCH: Rep. Luis Guitierrez Arrested in Front of White House Protesting - Page 2

lilbawler2001 · 07:21 PM

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In a letter to Mr. Gutierrez on Monday, Mr. Obama rejected his proposal to suspend deportations of illegal immigrant college students with clean criminal records. Last week, Mr. Gutierrez and three other House Democrats had sent a letter to the president requesting the suspensions and also asking him to take executive measures to make it easier for illegal immigrants married to American citizens to remain in the United States.
Mr. Gutierrez said he decided to go ahead with the protest after receiving Mr. Obama’s response. “It didn’t disappoint me as much as I was saddened,” Mr. Gutierrez said in an interview after he paid a $100 fine and was released by the police. He was arrested in May 2010 in a similar protest.
In his letter, Mr. Obama argued that immigration authorities had succeeded in increasing the numbers of convicted criminals among immigrants who are deported, while deporting fewer immigrants who lack legal status but have not been convicted of any crime. In 2010, Mr. Obama wrote, 51 percent of deportees were convicted criminals, while 49 percent had noncriminal violations. Two-thirds of the noncriminal deportees had either committed multiple violations of immigration law (which is generally a civil offense) or had been caught at the border soon after crossing illegally, Mr. Obama wrote.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2...ation-protest/

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He urged the congressmen to “use your advocacy energy where it will have the greatest impact”—in Congress.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/0...ks-with-obama/