--- title: White House Taking 'Fresh Look' at Deportation Review Program description: The Obama Administration indicated Thursday that it would revamp a controversial deportation review program. canonical: https://time.com/102694/obama-deportation-program-reviews/ author: Alex Rogers article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-16T14:52:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T07:53:08.028Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Taking 'Fresh Look' at Deportation Review Program og:description: The Obama Administration indicated Thursday that it would revamp a controversial deportation review program. og:url: https://time.com/102694/obama-deportation-program-reviews/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde095feaed5cd23d/69868fe6cd68482bbd094b53/president-barack-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to law enforcement officials in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building May 13, 2014 in Washington, D.C. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Taking 'Fresh Look' at Deportation Review Program twitter:description: The Obama Administration indicated Thursday that it would revamp a controversial deportation review program. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde095feaed5cd23d/69868fe6cd68482bbd094b53/president-barack-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama Administration Taking 'Fresh Look' at Deportation Review Program > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers May 16, 2014 2:52 PM UTC  U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to law enforcement officials in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building May 13, 2014 in Washington, D.C. U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to law enforcement officials in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building May 13, 2014 in Washington, D.C. Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers May 16, 2014 2:52 PM UTC The Obama Administration indicated Thursday that it would revamp a controversial deportation review program in the near future as congressional efforts to pass immigration reform this year continue to prove fruitless. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in an interview that aired on PBS _NewsHour_ Thursday that the Secure Communities program, which sends fingerprints of people booked into state and local jails to federal immigration authorities, needs a “fresh look.” “In my judgment, Secure Communities should be an efficient way to work with state and local law enforcement to reach the removal priorities that we have, those who are convicted of something,” said Johnson. “We’re in the midst of evaluating potential revisions to our policies right now. I have been having meetings as recently as today.” The move would likely placate immigration reform advocates, who have pushed to alter or get rid of Secure Communities, which they say is deporting immigrants who have committed only minor offenses. Johnson said the program has become “very controversial.” Johnson’s comments were the most explicit indication of potential executive action since President Barack Obama said in January that he would explore all available options to reform the immigration system if Congress failed to pass a reform bill. Republicans have repeatedly said that they are wary of passing any such bill due to deep mistrust in how the White House would administer the law. They point to the number of deadline extensions and revisions to the President’s health care law as examples of what they consider the Obama Administration’s incompetence in handling a major reform bill. Unilateral changes to immigration law would likely increase the Republican tenor, but could help the President and Democrats connect with Hispanics who are wary about the Obama Administration’s continually high level of deportations. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/102694/obama-deportation-program-reviews/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/102694/obama-deportation-program-reviews/"},"headline":"Obama Administration Taking 'Fresh Look' at Deportation Review Program","datePublished":"2014-05-16T14:52:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:53:08.028Z","description":"The Obama Administration has indicated it will revamp a controversial deportation review program as efforts to pass immigration reform continue to prove fruitless","url":"https://time.com/102694/obama-deportation-program-reviews/","keywords":["Immigration"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde095feaed5cd23d/69868fe6cd68482bbd094b53/president-barack-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Rogers","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde095feaed5cd23d/69868fe6cd68482bbd094b53/president-barack-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to law enforcement officials in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building May 13, 2014 in Washington, D.C.","caption":"U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to law enforcement officials in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building May 13, 2014 in Washington, D.C.","creditText":"Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/immigration/","name":"Immigration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/102694/obama-deportation-program-reviews/","name":"Obama Administration Taking 'Fresh Look' at Deportation Review Program"}}]}] ```