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Mr. Morgenthau writes that, “the Drug Enforcement Administration should join in the fight against Central American drug gangs and cartels by opening an office in the region and providing support to local law enforcement.”
Former Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau writes that by opting for an executive order on the immigration bill, President Obama “has taken a major step forward, keeping families together and allowing undocumented immigrants to work legally and pay taxes.”

There’s more President Obama can and should do without Congress

President Obama famously — or, in the minds of some, infamously — took executive action last week to halt deportations and grant work permits to an estimated 4 million undocumented immigrants. He explained that he decided to act because the Republican-controlled House has repeatedly refused to bring a comprehensive immigration reform bill up for a vote.

I applaud the President’s announcement. He has taken a major step forward, keeping families together and allowing undocumented immigrants to work legally and pay taxes.

But Obama should not stop here. There are additional steps the administration should take to fix immigration policy that do not require either congressional support or more funding.

First, the administration should reallocate resources to provide support to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, three countries have become significant sources of illegal migration to the U.S.

Anticipating criticism of his executive orders from the right wing, President Obama touted in his speech the fact that “we have more agents and technology deployed to secure our southern border than at any time in our history.”

However, the administration’s focus on militarizing the border is misguided. To reduce the flight of children and women from Central America, we should help these three countries attack the root causes of the migration: drug-related violence and severe poverty.

The Drug Enforcement Administration should join in the fight against Central American drug gangs and cartels by opening an office in the region and providing support to local law enforcement.

The DEA has done so in the past, including in Beirut in the 1950s and more recently in Colombia. At the same time, the State Department should redirect foreign aid to the Central American governments and local NGOs, and the Peace Corps, which recently pulled out of Honduras due to safety concerns, should reestablish its presence.

Recent history has shown that improved safety and economic prospects will be far more effective deterrents than border patrol and fences. An analysis of census data found that the number of undocumented immigrants from Mexico has declined in the last five years as the Mexican economy has improved.

Second, the administration should exercise greater oversight of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which continues to vigorously detain and remove immigrants who have no criminal convictions or were found guilty of only minor infractions.

More than two years ago, Obama declared that he was focused on deporting “criminals” and “gangbangers.” He repeated that promise again last Thursday, telling the country that his administration is targeting “actual threats to our security. Felons, not families. Criminals, not children.” Congress too has instructed ICE to “prioritize the identification and removal of aliens convicted of a crime by the severity of that crime.”

Unfortunately, these crystal-clear policy directives have not trickled down to ICE agents. According to a Syracuse University policy group, only 9% of the government’s nearly 223,000 deportation requests in fiscal year 2014 were based on any kind of criminal activity. In October, less than 3% of the approximately 7,000 deportation requests involved an aggravated felony, terrorism or national-security charge. The administration and Homeland Security should reassess and monitor the deportation decisions made by ICE.

Third, because many detainees are not criminals, there is no reason the administration should keep everyone locked up for weeks, months or even years at a cost of at least $120 per day.

Last year, Congress allocated an incredible $2.8 billion to ICE for “detention and removal operations.” This level of spending is wasteful. ICE should expand its use of alternative, cheaper forms of supervision — like ankle monitors or weekly check-ins to track nonviolent immigrants with significant ties to the community.

Ankle monitors cost only $4.50 per day, and ICE officials have acknowledged that nearly all wearers show up for their removal hearings in immigration court. These alternatives to incarceration are used every day by law enforcement to deal with non-violent arrestees.

The Obama administration should instruct ICE to implement these methods and keep the number of detainees at 34,000, the minimum quota dictated by Congress. Meanwhile, as Congress continues to hammer out the funding legislation for fiscal year 2015, it should eliminate the unprecedented and unnecessary detention quota altogether.

Obama used his executive authority to, as he eloquently put it, “help make our immigration system more fair and more just.” I hope he will continue to take action in pursuit of that goal.

Morgenthau, former Manhattan district attorney, is of counsel to Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz.

Originally published in the New York Daily News

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