WASHINGTON -- The White House plans to stay the course on its policies toward undocumented mothers and children fleeing violence in Central America, even as Democrats say its deportation raids are putting families in jeopardy.
"We're of course aware of these concerns, but the enforcement strategy and priorities that the administration has articulated are not going to change," Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Friday -- a day after administration officials attended a meeting with House Democrats, and the same day activists held a press conference condemning the raids outside the White House.
The Department of Homeland Security began raids last weekend targeting families that entered the U.S. after May 1, 2014, and received deportation orders. During the first few days of the raids, the agency picked up 121 people, all of whom had exhausted their legal remedies to stay in the U.S., DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Monday.
The people officials picked up represent only a small portion of the tens of thousands of Central American women and children apprehended along the U.S.-Mexico border during a surge in 2014. Apprehensions of families and unaccompanied minors are climbing again. Many conservatives say this is due to what they consider to be the Obama administration's lax immigration enforcement.
But experts say it's more likely driven by dangerous conditions, including gang violence, in Central America -- which is why Democratic lawmakers and advocates say it's unconscionable to send families back to the countries they're fleeing.
Earnest noted, however, that the families fit into the administration's stated priorities for deportation, along with convicted criminals and others considered a potential threat to public safety, due to their status as relatively recent arrivals.
"We are seeking to deport felons, not break apart families," Earnest said Friday in defense of the deportation priorities. "The other area of priority that is important is to ensure that we are maintaining security at the border, and that means individuals who have only recently crossed the border are also priorities for removal."
But Democratic critics and immigration activists are throwing the oft-used "felons, not families" line back at the administration, and asking why women and children are being targeted in their homes.
"The president said we were going to focus on felons, not families," said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who had previously echoed some of the administration's points on the raids, during a press conference condemning them on Friday.
"Everybody understands focusing on felons. But focusing on families is not reflective of our values," Hoyer continued.
Hoyer joined members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) at the press conference, where they railed against the Obama administration for looking at the mothers and children as an immigration issue rather than a refugee issue.
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairwoman Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) acknowledged that because the families entered the country in 2014 or after, they are technically a priority for removal. But she said that they are also candidates for relief to remain in the U.S., given the dangers they would face in their home countries.
Sánchez and others are calling for the administration to offer the Central American families temporary protected status, and requested a meeting with Obama to discuss it personally. The lawmakers are also circulating a letter to the president that they will send next week.
The administration can designate certain countries as unsafe, and people from those countries can apply for temporary protected status to remain in the U.S. on a provisional basis. El Salvador and Honduras are currently among the countries designated for temporary protected status, but the Salvadoran and Honduran women and children picked up in the recent raids are ineligible for protection because they entered the U.S. too recently.
"Under extraordinary circumstances -- and I would think that facing almost certain death is an extraordinary circumstance if you're removed from this country -- I would think that the president has the authority to grant temporary protected status to those families," Sánchez said.
She and other Democrats said the women have not had an adequate opportunity to make their case for remaining in the country. But an immigration court granted stays of removal to at least four families picked up in the raids earlier this week, after they filed late appeals. Attorneys said some of the women did not appeal their deportation ruling within the required window of time because they couldn't afford legal counsel or didn't understand the proceedings.
Earnest told reporters on Friday that all cases are "considered on a case-by-case basis for any sort of humanitarian or asylum claims they may have to make, and their legal remedies are exhausted before they are deported."
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