He was part of O’s meeting yesterday with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He’s also been known to say that his only loyalty is to the immigrant community. You trust a guy like that to take a firm line against admitting an especially sympathetic class of illegals, don’t you?

Actually, I guess the line isn’t so firm.

President Obama reassured members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Wednesday that he will flex his executive muscle later this year to be “as great and big and bold as he can be” to reduce deportations of undocumented immigrant families who have lived and worked in the United States for years, one Democratic lawmaker said at the conclusion of the meeting.

Meanwhile, members of the caucus are willing to give the administration expedited authority to deport a surge of unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the United States, as long as any statutory changes preserve judicial due process on a case-by-case basis, Gutierrez told RCP…

“We will not vote for a supplemental [spending bill] that undercuts existing law that protects the children,” he said of proposed changes to a statute aimed at curbing sex trafficking and adopted in 2008. The law offered asylum-seekers from countries not contiguous with the United States judicial reviews that can last longer than the scrutiny afforded border-crossers from Mexico and Canada. Last week, senior White House officials said Obama wanted discretion to expedite the review process and eliminate the different treatment pegged to countries of origin.

“We do want the children to get expedited, and we gave [Obama] many suggestions within the confines of the law so that those children can get inside a courtroom,” Gutierrez said. “They’re going to be deported. The vast majority do not have an asylum case. We know that. Let’s just be clear,” he added.

He’s playing a game here, and you should know by now what that game is. The trick, aimed at low-information voters, is to confuse expedited deportation with expedited judicial process. In the first case, HHS puts an illegal immigrant child on a plane back home; in the second case, HHS brings an illegal immigrant child before an immigration judge, who sets a deportation hearing for him in a week or two and then lets him go. The kid then disappears into the U.S., never to be seen by federal authorities again. Later, at the hearing, the judge issues an order of deportation in absentia, but so what? The order is pointless if it can’t be executed. Gutierrez is happy to “expedite” the process by letting deportation orders issue more quickly so long as no one does anything to carry them out. That’s what he means by “they’re going to be deported.” Deportation orders will issue, but actual deportations happening? Nope. “Due process” in this case is simply code for no process.

But it’s a great talking point, no? Here’s Luis Gutierrez, famous amnesty shill, trumpeting to reporters that he’s all for sending the kids home so long as a million or two — or five — adults gets to stay, and knowing all the while that most of the kids won’t end up going home either. Obama’s pushing the same line, and they’re both counting on the public having a short attention span: As long as promises to send the kids home happen now, when voters are paying attention, whether the kids are actually sent home later when voters have lost interest won’t much matter. That’s a lesson Democrats (and lots of pro-amnesty Republicans) learned nearly 30 years ago from the 1986 amnesty. Promise a lot on security at a rare moment when the public cares and then you can forget about actually having to deliver later. Smart bet.