Emily Ruiz, a four-year-old citizen, has been returned to the United States after being "deported" to Guatemala by the Obama administration.  CNN has reported that she was flown first class, and is now back with her parents.  

That's the good news.

The bad news is that the administration is now trying to spin this incident as a simple miscommunication, and their spin is being bolstered by Emily's parents who have no lawful status in the United States, and who may become subject to the same fate that already befell their daughter. No motivation there.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. has properly characterized what happened to this young girl.  He writes: 

I will not be cajoled into referring to what happened to Emily as a "de facto deportation."

Baloney. The girl was on U.S. soil, and then she wasn't. And she was sent back to Guatemala, her parents' homeland, under the authority of the U.S. government - specifically, U.S. Customs and Border Protection. And she was, throughout her ordeal, in the custody of the U.S government. That's a deportation.

You can say the process was misapplied in this case because Emily is a U.S. citizen. But let's not allow the government or anyone else to lessen a grave injustice by calling it by anything but its proper name.

So let me ask you this rhetorical question: Would the Obama administration have "deported" Emily, a United States citizen by birth, if she was white, and was returning to the United States from England?

I'm just sayin'.

I just read a great article written by Alex Nowrasteh that echoes everything that I have been saying over the past two years about President Obama and his administration's immigration policies. In a nutshell, the article points out that the President's policies are enforcement-centric, and that he is "the most anti-immigration president in generations."

To this end, the President just went on record stating that he will not suspend deportations for individuals who are working without authorization, and will also not offer temporary protected status to individuals who face a threat of deportation.  What this means is that the President is deporting immigrants in record numbers, while offering no solutions.

The bottom line is that you can't be fooled by the President when he gives lip-service to immigration reform because his actions tell the real story.  Let's hope that in 2012 the President faces a primary challenge.  It may be time to dust off those Hillary for President signs.