Francis Wilkinson, Columnist

Immigration Backers Target 'Deporter in Chief' Obama

Immigration activists are not planning to let anyone off the hook.

March 6, 2014 at 7:06 PM UTC

Francis Wilkinson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering US politics and policy. Previously, he was executive editor for the Week and a writer for Rolling Stone.

The Deporter in Chief. Photographer: Leslie E. Kossoff-Pool/ Getty Images

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Let's review some immigration news from the past two days. In the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrat Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, a strong supporter of comprehensive immigration reform, called President Barack Obama the "deporter in chief" because of the record number of deportations under his administration since 2009.

In the U.S. Senate, Senator Robert Menendez, the sole Hispanic member of the Democratic caucus, called on Obama to take executive action to stop deportations of undocumented immigrants who have strong family ties in the U.S. He was supported by Democratic Senators Dick Durbin and Tom Harkin.