The exchange came during a town hall event sponsored by the Spanish-language television network Univision at a Washington, D.C., school. An illegal alien student, who appeared via Skype, asked: “My question for the president is, why [is the government] saying that deportations have stopped or the detention of many students like me, why is it that we are still receiving deportation letters like this one?”
Obama answered, “We have redesigned our enforcement practices under the law to make sure that we’re focusing primarily on criminals, and so our deportation of criminals are up about 70 percent. Our deportation of non-criminals are down, and that’s because we want to focus our resources on those folks who are destructive to the community.
“And for a young person like that young woman that we just spoke to who’s going to school, doing all the right things, we want them to succeed," Obama said.
"I have been such a strong proponent of the DREAM Act--why I reiterated during my State of the Union speech that we need to pass the DREAM Act," said Obama. “We came close in the December. It almost happened.”
The president later added, “America is a nation of laws, which means I as the President am obligated to enforce the law.”
After the president addressed the illegal-alien student’s question, the moderator of the event asked Obama, “Mr. President, my question will be as follows: With an executive order, could you be able to stop deportation of the students?”
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| The American Flag flies along the international border in Nogales, Ariz., in this photo taken on Thursday, April 22, 2010. |
“That does not mean, though, that we can’t make decisions, for example, to emphasize enforcement on those who’ve engaged in criminal activity,” said Obama. “It also doesn’t mean that we can’t strongly advocate and propose legislation that would change the law in order to make it more fair, more just, and ultimately would help young people who are here and trying to do the right thing –and those talents we want to embrace in order to succeed as a country.”
The town hall took place at the Bell Multicultural High School in Washington, D.C. Attendees of the town hall included students and parents.
The DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, which failed to pass during the lame-duck session of Congress in 2010, would have allowed young illegal immigrants who have been in the states for at least five years to acquire legal status if they pass background checks, attend college or serve in the military for at least two years.
The president also called for “comprehensive immigration reform” and added that the U.S. immigration system is broken.
“We have to have secure borders, we have to make sure that businesses are not exploiting undocumented workers, but we have to have a pathway to citizenship for those who are just looking for a better life and contributing to our country and I’ll continue to fight for them,” said Obama.