Aliens vs. Obama: immigration crackdown.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: Citings

THE GOP HOPES to score points with Americans angry about illegal immigration by attacking the Obama administration's legal challenge to Arizona's SB 1070, a law that punishes undocumented aliens and those who offer them shelter, work, or transportation. But the president has been an immigration hawk on other fronts.

The Obama administration supports the Secure Communities program, which requires local authorities to check arrestees' immigration status against government databases. The Department of Homeland Security claims the program has helped find 240,000 criminal illegal immigrants, 30,000 of whom have been deported. The department has yet to release data indicating which crimes these immigrants are believed to have committed.

The administration also supports the State Criminal Mien Assistance Program, which pays bounties to local governments for finding illegal immigrants in their jails. A 2000 report from the Department of Justice's inspector...