Clinton Crafts a Dodge Over Obama Deportations.

The Immigration Service announced on Thursday that a few hundred illegal immigrant families identified by courts as being illegal are going to be hunted down and deported starting next month.

 

The Republican response was to wonder whether Obama is doing it as a political ploy in response to Trumps caustic comments on illegal immigrants, and while they applaud it, they are cynical as to Obama's motives.

 

On the Democratic side both Sanders and O'Malley expressed their clear opposition to it.

But Hillary Clinton issued the kind of dodgy politically crafted non-committal  statement that tends to always leave her open to criticism that everything she does is politically motivated.

She released a statement essentially saying she " has real concerns about the reports".

 

First, what were her "concerns"? She didn't say. What does "concerns" mean? She didn't say. Secondly  they were not "reports". It was a statement released to the media by Immigration about a new Obama policy that is going to be implemented next month. 

Clinton calling it a "report" seems to  be a hedge to buy time to figure out what exactly Clinton is going to say given her new found public embrace of most of Obama's failed policies, which to many smacks of a backroom deal with Obama where  the DNC which is run by Obama as president will  do everything they can to tilt the playing field in her direction ( just as they did against her in 2008 ) which as David Gergen observed seems to already be the case when he said the DNC has clearly " gone in the tank for Clinton" , and Clinton in return will  publicly support and defend Obama policies. Although in this case it's obvious Clinton was caught by surprise and unprepared. So by calling it a "report" it's pretending that it's not official. Except that it is.

 

Obama's decision to deport these illegal immigrant families seems to put Clinton between a rock and a hard place to either support Obama's policy as she has all other Obama polices as per the agreement ( a huge political mistake)  or find a way to not support it without sounding like it so she can  support Obama and continue to trash Donald Trump for his statements on illegal immigrants at the same time. Sound confusing? Imagine what it's like for Clinton. 

 

The statement of "real concerns about reports" sounds like language trying to walk a political tightrope in being  " concerned " about it while not  looking like she is opposing it as part of the deal for the Obama controlled DNC pulling strings for her candidacy ( like debates scheduled at times when people are least likely to see them and the heavy handed one sided approach by the DNC over the Sanders data breach).

 

But as if trying to clarify it, another  statement put out soon after by a Clinton campaign spokesman made it worse.

The statement read: 

 

"Hillary Clinton has real concerns about these reports especially as families are coming together during this holiday season.  She believes it is critical (here comes the caveat) that everyone has a full and fair hearing and that our country provide refuge for those who need it". 

 

First, why is Clinton not saying that herself? Why is it being issued by someone else in her name? Wiggle room?  Secondly why continue to call it "reports" as opposed to a statement of policy when Clinton knows it's not "reports" but reality?  Third, what does the holiday season have to do with anything? If they deported the same families in August it would be okay?  

And that's exactly what could happen since the announced deportations aren't begining till next month.  And finally the major hedge as italicized earlier-- "she believes it is critical that everyone has a  full and fair hearing.." 

 Well that's nice since those families already had those hearings.All of them. And Clinton undoubtedly  knows that too.   It was part of the statement of policy put out on Thursday by the Immigration Service. So it's a red herring.  The families that are to be deported already  had their " full and fair" hearings in front an Immigrations judge and were found to have entered the country illegally and met other criteria that supposedly justified their deportation.  Clinton calling for "full and fair hearings" is calling for something that already happened. 

 

So what Clinton did in her statement was in reality support the Obama decision to deport  while trying to sound like she isn't.  It's both defending the Obama policy and illegal immigrant families at the same time by putting conditions on it that already exist. In contrast to Sanders and O'Malley who have both trashed it in no uncertain terms. While Clinton seems to still be  looking for terms. The  right ones.