Thread: Govt tells agents to ID which immigrants not to deport

Jan 28, 3:15 AM (ET)

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration has ordered immigration agents to ask immigrants they encounter living in the country illegally whether they might qualify under President Barack Obama's plans to avoid deporting them, according to internal training materials obtained by The Associated Press.

Agents also have been told to review government files to identify any jailed immigrants they might be able to release under the program.

The directives from the Homeland Security Department mark an unusual change for U.S. immigration enforcement, placing the obligation on the government for identifying immigrants who might qualify for lenient treatment. Previously, it was the responsibility of immigrants or their lawyers to assert that they might qualify under rules that could keep them out of jail and inside the United States.

It's akin to the Internal Revenue Service calling taxpayers to recommend they should have used certain exemptions or deductions.

The training materials apply to agents for Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They instruct agents "to immediately begin identifying persons in their custody, as well as newly encountered persons" who may be eligible for protection from deportation.

One training document includes scenarios describing encounters between agents and immigrants with guidance about how agents should proceed, with a checklist of questions to determine whether immigrants might qualify under the president's plans. ICE officials earlier began releasing immigrants who qualified for leniency from federal immigration jails.

Obama in November announced a program to allow roughly 4 million parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents to apply for permission to stay in the country for up to three years and get a work permit. The program mirrors one announced in 2012 that provides protection from deportation for young immigrants brought to the country as children.

A spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, Carlos Diaz, said immigrants caught crossing the border illegally remain a top priority for the agency. The training documents for border agents, he said, "provide clear guidance on immigration enforcement operations so that both time and resources are allocated appropriately."

Crystal Williams, executive director for the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington, said the training will help filter people the government said should not be a priority anyway. She said the training marked the first she has heard of officers being directed to screen immigrants for potential leniency before they were arrested.

"Just because it's a change doesn't mean it's anything particularly radical," Williams said.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat and vocal supporter of Obama's immigration plans, said having CBP officers screen immigrants out of the deportation line lets the government "move criminals and recent arrivals to the front of the deportation line. The emphasis now is on who should be deported first, not just who can be deported."

A former deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department, John Malcolm, said the new instructions limit immigration agents.

"Agents are being discouraged away from anything other than a cursory view" of an immigrant's status and qualification for leniency, said Malcolm, who works as a senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington.

Under Obama's plans, the government is focused on deporting immigrants with serious criminal records or who otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety. For the most part, under the new policy, immigrants whose only offense is being in the country without permission aren't supposed to be a priority for immigration officers.

While the administration has estimated that as many as 4 million people will be eligible for protection from deportation, the Congressional Budget Office estimated about 2 million to 2.5 million immigrants are expected to be approved for the program by 2017. As many as 1.7 million young immigrants were estimated to be eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, but since its 2012 creation only about 610,000 people have successfully signed up.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/2015...135fed8ce.html

Under Obama's plans, the government is focused on deporting immigrants with serious criminal records or who otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety. For the most part, under the new policy, immigrants whose only offense is being in the country without permission aren't supposed to be a priority for immigration officers.

Look, the FBI has statistics with access to every detail of a "serious criminal record". If Obama or anyone in this rogue government had any intention of actually deporting immigrants with serious criminal records, they would have already done so. And under US immigration, US labor and US civil rights laws of the United States and many other state laws in the United States, being in the country illegally is a serious crime. It's a shame that we have a government including some 45 members or more of the US Senate who don't consider being in our country illegally a serious crime, who don't consider the 71% using at least one form of welfare and we know that's many more forms than one isn't a serious crime, who don't believe stealing jobs from American citizens and deflating our wages isn't a serious crime, or passing the cost of all this insanity on to federal taxpayers who don't have the money to pay off this outrageous debt accumulating faster than we can count it because of all these serious crimes.

The Obama Legacy will be a sad one, and I'm sp sorry for black Americans who were so hopeful and grateful to have a black President for the first time in our history. To be betrayed by the first black President is an unexpected heart-break and an unforgivable disappointment to them and all Americans who expected far better.

Barack Obama will be the Traitor's President, the President who sold out the citizens of the United States in favor of a bunch of thieving, mooching, whining drug-running lawless foreigners backed and funded by foreign cartels.

Originally Posted by Judy

If Obama or anyone in this rogue government had any intention of actually deporting immigrants with serious criminal records, they would have already done so.

'Bama wants to make sure that the American people live to regret having elected a black man as their president. The immigration debacle is made for someone who delights in thumbing his nose at Americans.
*************************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Originally Posted by vistalad

'Bama wants to make sure that the American people live to regret having elected a black man as their president. The immigration debacle is made for someone who delights in thumbing his nose at Americans.
*************************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Well, he won't succeed with that. He will however succeed in causing Americans to regret having elected him, regardless of his race. And yes, you're absolutely right that he delights in thumbing his nose at the American People. He's having the time of his life right now as a Soros Puppet Head.