PLAYING POLITICS

Obama Delays Deportation Review

To help chances of immigration reform.

White House officials announced Tuesday that President Obama has asked the Department of Homeland Security to delay a review of U.S. deportation polices until the end of the summer in the hopes that it will rekindle interest in immigration reform in Congress. Hoping to satisfy immigration activists, the president had directed the government in March to look into whether deportation could be more humane. Republicans turned it into a political cudgel, claiming it showed Obama would not enforce laws he doesn’t like. “The president really wants to maximize the opportunity to get a permanent solution enacted, which requires Congress,” said a White House official. Even with the midterms around the corner, the White House thinks there is still time to get something on immigration reform from Congress. “We’ve got maybe a window of two, three months to get the ball rolling in the House of Representatives,” Obama said this month.