The U.S. government is currently reviewing orders to deport thousands of illegal immigrants in two cities, at a time of great division on the issue at federal and local levels. In the past fiscal year, a record 396,000 undocumented immigrants were deported from the United States, with more than 300,000 cases still pending.
美国政府正在重新审查两个城市遣返成千上万非法移民的命令。眼下这个议题在联邦和地方层面出现巨大分歧。在过去的财政年度里，有创纪录的39万6千非法移民从美国被遣返，另外还有30多万的遣返案件即将实施。
The port city of Baltimore, Maryland, also known by its nickname “Charm City,” is one of the cities where U.S. federal immigration authorities are trying out new ways in dealing with a large caseload of deportation orders.
马里兰州的港口城市巴尔的摩是美国联邦移民当局试图找出新的途径，来处置大量积压的遣返命令的城市之一。
The other city is high-altitude Denver, Colorado.
另外一个城市是科罗拉多州的丹佛市。
Divergent views
In both places, illegal immigrants without violent criminal records may be allowed to stay, while cases against illegal immigrants deemed to have serious criminal records may be expedited.
在这两个城市，没有暴力犯罪记录的非法移民可能被允许继续居住，而那些有严重犯罪记录的非法移民的遣返案件可能会加速办理。
One politician not happy at all with the experiment, which runs until the middle of January, is Maryland House of Delegates Republican Pat McDonough.
马里兰州州议员、共和党人麦克多纳对这次持续到明年1月中旬的尝试非常不满。
He recently wrote a newspaper opinion piece saying Baltimore was being turned into what he calls an “amnesty city.”
他最近在报纸上发表意见，认为巴尔的摩正在变成他所说的“特赦之城”。
“What this does is it creates a magnet and incentive for people who are in this country without lawful presence to flock to Baltimore. And there are consequences to that,” said McDonough.
麦克多纳说：“现在这种做法实际上是为那些没有合法身份居住在这个国家的人创造一种吸引和激励的氛围，让他们纷纷聚集到巴尔的摩。这样做会有很多后果。”
Economic issues cited
McDonough says consequences include added costs to provide bilingual services, added pressures on emergency rooms to deal with uninsured illegal immigrants, higher unemployment among legal residents, and threats to public safety.
麦克多纳表示，这些后果包括要为双语服务增加开支，向没有医疗保险的非法移民提供服务的急救中心受到压力，而且还可能导致合法居民的失业率上升，并威胁到公众安全。
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said it was not conducting interviews on the immigration case review.
美国移民和海关执法局表示，针对移民案件审查，该机构不接受采访。
In an email statement, it said the U.S. government is trying to focus immigration enforcement resources on those convicted of crimes, recent border crossers and what it called egregious immigration law violators.
在一份电邮声明中，美国移民和海关执法局表示，美国政府正努力把移民执法力量的重点放在那些被判有罪，近年来越过边界的偷渡者以及该机构所称的明目张胆违反移民法律的人身上。
Pro-immigrant activists have complained too many non-violent illegal immigrants are being deported, in a rush by the agency to boost statistics and receive more funding.
提倡保护移民的活动人士一直抱怨说，有太多的非暴力非法移民遭到遣返。他们还说，美国移民和海关执法局之所以匆忙遣返，是为了渲染业绩并由此得到更多的拨款。
Review and considerations
Mary Giovagnoli, the Washington-based Immigration Policy Center director, calls the current two-city review a small step in the right direction.
玛丽?吉奥瓦格诺里是设在华盛顿的移民政策中心的主任，她称目前这两座城市的移民案件重审工作是朝着正确的方向迈出的一小步。
“Truly moving on is really messy, and like any major social issue you do not resolve it right away. In that sense, it is not unlike the civil rights movement or the voting rights movement or any other number of issues that took years and years to really resolve and get right because you are both changing the laws, and you are changing hearts and minds,” said Giovagnoli.
她说：“实际上正在发生的情况真的很糟糕，就像任何重大的社会议题一样，你无法很快就解决这个问题。因此，移民问题和民权运动或者投票权运动，或者任何其它的议题没有什么不同，这个问题真正获得解决需要时间，因为你既要修改法律，还要改变人们的心意，让人心服口服。”
The review comes at a time when lawmakers in more and more U.S. states are passing tough anti-immigration laws.
这次移民案件重审工作进行的同时，正值美国各州的议员们纷纷通过严格的反移民法律之际。
But the federal government is pushing back on that front as well, using challenges in the court system and saying it has exclusive authority to regulate immigration.
但是联邦政府正在通过法院系统的挑战以及只有联邦政府拥有管理移民问题权力的表态，来遏制这种势头。
There also have been protests by those favoring fewer deportations. In some states like Alabama, civil rights leaders recently marched for families to be kept together, as in recent months, detained or deported illegal immigrant parents were separated from their U.S.-born citizen children.
同时也发生了支持减少遣返移民的抗议活动。像在阿拉巴马这样的一些州，民权领袖最近举行游行，要求让移民的家庭能够团聚。最近一些月来，遭到拘押和遣返的非法移民父母被迫和他们出生在美国，拥有美国公民身份的孩子分开。
Activists in other cities, like Iowa City, are going even further, seeking to make the college town Iowa’s first so-called sanctuary city to protect illegal immigrants from federal immigration law.
其它像爱奥华城等一些城市走得更远，他们寻求把爱奥华这座大学城变成爱奥华州第一个按照联邦移民法律保护非法移民的所谓避难之城。
More than 30 cities in the United States have gone this route, with some even banning officials from asking people about their immigration status. Activists say it saves the city money while also creating a stronger sense of community - claims staunch opponents to illegal immigration find outrageous.
美国有30多个城市已经采取类似行动，一些城市甚至禁止官员询问人们的移民身份。活动人士表示，这样做节省了城市的经费，同时构建了一种更强的社区氛围。而坚定的反非法移民者认为这种说辞非常过份。 |