WASHINGTON (AP) – Facing rising outrage among its allies, the White House on Friday defended its deportation policies and suggested it had no plans to shift course after a series of holiday-season raids seeking Central American immigrants angered activists and Democratic lawmakers.
President Barack Obama was aware of the outrage over the raids, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Friday, but “the enforcement strategy and priorities that the administration has articulated are not going to change.”
Earnest said the raids reflected the administration’s top priorities for deportation – people with criminal convictions and people caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. Homeland Security officials have said the raids targeted 121 people with final order of removal.
The raids riled some Democratic lawmakers and activists, groups long critical of the administration’s deportation policies. Lawmakers said the searches were ill-timed and disruptive, spreading fear across immigrant communities and breaking apart families.
White House officials met Thursday with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to try to quell the criticism, with no apparent success.