Illegal immigrants are definitely a sensitive issue in the USA and after Arizona’s failure to impose a racist and discriminatory law, the Obama administration is now walking on very shaky soil by starting a full-force PR offensive on immigration. Their key message of the Obama team being tough on illegal immigrants by sending them back to their home countries is powered by federal agency data showing more people than ever have been deported while they were running the country.
John Morton, director of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, has been at the heart of this PR offensive, making several public appearances, the most recent one in the discriminating immigration law home-state, Arizona:
“For those who doubt the federal government’s resolve in the enforcement of immigration law, let me say this: We are committed to strong, effective immigration enforcement, and the facts speak for themselves,” ICE Director John Morton said.
“Is there more work to be done? Absolutely. Is the problem a significant one, a challenging one for the nation? Absolutely,” he said. But “we’re in this for the long haul. … We’re going to get this right.”
Federal data backs up the Obama administration statements: ICE deported 380,000 people during the year that ended June 30, one-third of them being convicted criminals, both numbers marking a high score in US presidential administration history.
Yet those most fervently against illegal immigrations are not backing the Obama administration efforts. Quite the opposite, they criticize their actions, stating ICE is in the business of picking and choosing when to enforce the immigration law. They claim that ICE is focusing their message and efforts on convicted criminals, encouraging other illegal immigrants to stay, as long as they strive hard not to be arrested. ICE is also targeting employers that have work force audits which can be analyzed, but their being caught red-handed when hiring illegal immigrants won’t stop those looking for work to try to get a different job.
“It becomes a game of musical chairs,” Ira Mehlman, media director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “The administration has made it clear that they’re simply not going to do other sorts of enforcement.”
How exactly does one-third translate into too much focus on criminals? That’s a question anti-illegal immigration crusaders will have to explain. In the mean time, they are doing a great job of trying to discredit Obama’s and his administration’s efforts to address the illegal immigration issue and gain voters with moderate views on immigration law enforcement.
The criticism of Obama’s new immigration stand is backed up by campaign ads addressing the problem and a growing popularity of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer who signed the law dismissed for its racist stipulations. US citizens seem more worried about the illegal immigration issues than about having their representatives pass laws that are racist and generally discriminatory.
This sheds a new light on the moderate view voters the PR campaign is targeting. Are they really that many? What will have a stronger influence on them, the criticism or the current administration’s efforts to enforce current laws without backing new shady ones? Up to now, Morton’s best defense of their program and message has been that the agency has limited resources and has to prioritize. Not the best arguments he could have thought of, as even if they focus on convicted criminals too much, that translates into the program targeting those most dangerous to US citizens first.
From a PR standpoint, the Obama administration has been pushing hard at first to come up with excuses instead of arguments at the first sign of negativity. They definitely need a better strategy!
About Alina Popescu
Only strategy detectable over time is — find out how to manipulate the voters so that in the end you can sleaze through what you wanted to do anyhow, even if it means denying that’s what is being done!
That’s top grade PR sleaze; Not really the kind of government people of integrity can respect.