Business Execs, FWD.us Official Meet with Homeland Security Chief as Obama Considers Limiting Deportations

On Tuesday, Jeh Johnson, the Secretary of Homeland Security, met with business leaders and representatives of various pro-amnesty groups, including Mark Zuckerberg’s FWD.us, to discuss the need for “commonsense immigration reform” and “[to underscore] the importance of Congressional action to pass” amnesty legislation.

Amnesty advocates have put pressure on the Obama administration to use executive actions to grant more amnesty and stop deportations, even though the notion that Obama is the “deporter-in-chief” has been debunked by studies from the left, right, and mainstream media outlets like the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

There was only one sheriff present at Johnson’s meeting with business executives and amnesty advocates, which came as the Obama administration considers using administrative actions to limit “deportations of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally who don’t have serious criminal records.” As the Associated Press noted, the directive could “shield tens of thousands of immigrants now removed each year solely because they committed repeat immigration violations, such as re-entering the country illegally after having been deported, failing to comply with a deportation order or missing an immigration court date.”

That would also mean, though, that illegal immigrants who had been previously deported or committed “minor” crimes could sneak back into the country and be shielded from being deported so long as they do not commit what the Obama administration considers “serious” crimes. 

Those with whom Johnson met include the following: Randy Johnson, Senior Vice President for Labor, Immigration, & Employee Benefits, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Craig Regelbrugge, Senior Vice President, American Horticulture Industry Association; Todd Schulte, Executive Director of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s pro-amnesty FWD.us group; Hanna Siegel, Chief of Staff, Partnership for a New American Economy; Jimmie Williams, Director, Global Government and Public Affairs, McDonald’s Corporation; Ali Noorani, Executive Director, National Immigration Forum; and Maria Gaby Pacheco, Co-Director, Bridge Project.