Thread: U.S. to stop deporting illegal aliens - USA-TODAY

Aug 27, 2010

U.S. to stop deporting immigrants who may be eligible for green cards

06:01 PM 3

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has decided to stop deporting foreign nationals who may be eligible for a green card and who have no criminal record, the Miami Herald reports. The policy shift might possibly affect tens of thousands married or related to a U.S. citizen or a legal resident who has filed petitions for immigration.

The change was outlined in an Aug. 20 memo that ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton sent to the agency's principal legal adviser and to the head of enforcement and removal operations.

"Where there is an underlying application or petition and ICE determines ... that a non-detained individual appears eligible for relief from removal, [its attorneys] should promptly move to dismiss proceedings,'' Morton wrote.

The agency released a statement that reiterated its policy of "focusing first on removing foreign nationals who have criminal convictions," the paper writes.

"This administration is committed to smart, effective immigration reform, prioritizing the arrest and removal of criminal aliens and those who pose a danger to national security,'' the statement said. "In 2010 to date, ICE has removed more than 150,000 convicted criminals — a record number.''

The immigration advocate who obtained the memo and passed it to El Nuevo Herald, the Herald's Spanish-language counterpart, hailed the change.

"This is the kind of reform we need," said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. "Targeting those who intend to do harm while expediting the cases of law-abiding immigrants is the best use of ICE's precious resources and will save taxpayers money.''

Separately, ICE announced that it had arrested 370 "convicted criminal aliens and immigration fugitives" during a three-day sweep that ended last night. The agency said it was the largest such crackdown in the Midwest. Details here.
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U.S. moving to ease deportation policy

Immigration authorities are showing mercy toward certain foreign nationals in deportation proceedings, the first indication ICE's tough posture may be easing.

BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@ElNuevoHerald.com

In a new and more lenient policy, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has instructed the agency's legal office to stop the deportation proceedings of foreign nationals who may now be eligible for a green card.

South Florida immigration attorneys and activists said the move is the first solid evidence of more tolerance by ICE toward some foreign nationals facing removal to their homelands.

Affected are possibly tens of thousands who are married or related to a U.S. citizen or a legal resident who has filed a petition for them. The immigrants who will benefit must also not have a criminal conviction.

In unveiling the change, ICE assistant secretary John Morton said the agency will soon drop deportation proceedings against those now eligible under the new guidelines.

``Where there is an underlying application or petition and ICE determines . . . that a non-detained individual appears eligible for relief from removal, [its attorneys] should promptly move to dismiss proceedings,'' Morton wrote in an Aug. 20 memo to the agency's principal legal advisor and the head of enforcement and removal operations.

``Good for John Morton and ICE,'' said Cheryl Little, executive director of Miami-based Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC), who obtained the memo and gave a copy to El Nuevo Herald. ``This is the kind of reform we need. Targeting those who intend to do harm while expediting the cases of law-abiding immigrants is the best use of ICE's precious resources and will save taxpayers money.''

Richard Rocha, ICE deputy press secretary in Washington, reiterated his agency's policy of focusing first on removing foreign nationals who have criminal convictions.

``This administration is committed to smart, effective immigration reform, prioritizing the arrest and removal of criminal aliens and those who pose a danger to national security,'' said Rocha in a statement. ``In 2010 to date, ICE has removed more than 150,000 convicted criminals -- a record number.''

Little's office said one of its clients, identified only as Josianne, may benefit from the Morton memo.

Josianne and her youngest daughter, both Haitian, are now in deportation proceedings despite petitions filed by Josianne's U.S. citizen husband. The proceedings have been postponed because of delays in processing the petitions.

The Morton memo will allow FIAC to ask the immigration judge to dismiss the case.

Prior to the memo, foreign nationals in deportation proceedings likely would have been deported even if they had pending relative petitions.

In 2007, for example, a case that deeply upset the Haitian community in Miami involved the deportation of a Haitian woman married to a U.S. citizen.

Marie Thelusma was picked up in her Miami Gardens home and deported to her native country just before she was to appear at an interview at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services where her residence petition might have been granted, said her attorney, Candace Jean. After her arrest, chronicled in columns by then Miami Herald columnist Ana Menendez, USCIS sent a form letter canceling the appointment and expressing regrets for ``any inconvenience this may cause.''

Jean said she planned to review the Morton memo, but doubted it could help her client because generally new policies are not retroactive. But she said had the memo been in place in 2007, it could have spared her client and many foreign nationals in similar circumstances from being separated from families.

``It would have saved many spouses from losing a spouse and, sadly, many children from losing a parent,'' Jean said.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/27/1 ... z0xqlbsj9J

So, here's my question: If you are an illegal/illegals and have an anchor baby, can an attorney file for citizenship for either parent as that anchor baby's representative?

I have a bad feeling about this.

New Immigration Policy to Halt Some Illegal Immigrant Deportations

Published August 27, 2010
FoxNews.com
AP

ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton wrote the Aug. 20 memo to Peter Vincent, principal legal advisor and head of the agency's removal operations.

Federal authorities have issued a new policy aimed at stopping deportation proceedings for some illegal immigrants, according to a memo issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The memo, which ICE released on Aug. 20, could affect up to tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who are married or related to a U.S. citizen or a legal resident who has filed a petition on their behalf. Illegal immigrants with criminal convictions will not qualify under the plan. ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton wrote the memo to Peter Vincent, principal legal adviser and head of the agency's removal operations.

The memo directs ICE attorneys to check cases of detained illegal immigrants for any "serious" or "adverse" factors weighing against dismissal, including criminal convictions, fraud, national security and public safety considerations.

"If no investigations … or serious adverse factors exist, the offices of chief counsel should promptly move to dismiss proceedings," the memo reads. "Once the Field Office Director is notified, the FOD must release the alien."

The change in policy could affect thousands of the estimated 17,000 pending removal cases. According to ICE data, nearly 40,000 immigrants obtained U.S residency status due to sponsorship of relatives who were legal residents in fiscal year 2009. By comparison, more than 393,000 illegal immigrants were deported during that same span.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, likened the change to a "free pass" for illegal immigrants, a characterization federal authorities denied.

“Actions like this demoralize ICE agents who are trying to do their job and enforce the law,â€

Originally Posted by alleycat

So, here's my question: If you are an illegal/illegals and have an anchor baby, can an attorney file for citizenship for either parent as that anchor baby's representative?

I have a bad feeling about this.

It sure sounds like it.

Immigration backlog stirs move to release some U.S. detainees

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 28, 2010

The Obama administration is moving to release thousands of illegal immigrants detained at facilities across the country if the immigrants have a potential path to legal residency.

The move could affect as many as 17,000 immigrants who entered the country illegally or overstayed their visas, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. It comes amid a push by ICE to focus on illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, rather than seek to deport all illegal immigrants. Officials say that the shift is needed to reduce massive clogs in the nation's immigration courts - where detainees wait for months or years before their cases are decided - and to use deportation as a tool for public safety.

"ICE is dedicating unprecedented resources to the removal of criminal aliens," said Richard Rocha, deputy press secretary at the immigration enforcement agency. "The focus now is clearly on criminal aliens. . . . We want to ensure convicted criminal aliens are not only removed from the community, but from the country as well."

Rocha said that the deportation of criminals accounts for about half of all removals, an all-time high. If the immigrants released under the new policy have their applications for legalization turned down, ICE will resume removal proceedings.

While immigration advocates applauded the move and said it reflected a more humane approach to illegal immigrants in detention, Republican lawmakers and groups that favor stricter limits on immigration denounced it as a form of back-door amnesty.

The number of immigrants being detained in the United States has doubled in the last decade, to 369,000 annually. There are now about 248,000 cases awaiting review in backlogged immigration courts, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University, which tracks immigration statistics.

The increases have triggered huge logistical problems and exposed successive administrations to charges that those who are in the country illegally, a violation of civil statutes, are being exposed to unnecessarily harsh conditions.

Simultaneously, ICE officials maintain, clogged immigration courts divert officials from identifying, tracking down and deporting illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes and other offenses.

In a memo dated Aug. 20, ICE Director John Morton wrote that as many as 17,000 illegal immigrants have pending applications for legal status with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, ICE's sister agency within the Department of Homeland Security.

As those applications are being reviewed, immigrants in detention who do not have criminal backgrounds might be eligible for release, Morton said. Local ICE officials have discretion in releasing detainees, he added, and would take into consideration a number of factors, including "national security and public safety."

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports tighter controls on immigration, warned that the move would demoralize agents working for ICE and also send the wrong message about illegal immigration.

Krikorian acknowledged that the government has to set immigration enforcement priorities, but said the shortfall in resources stems partly from the Obama administration's not seeking sufficient means to expedite the review of cases and the deportation of detainees.

"Simply letting them go sends a harmful message to immigration agents and to illegal immigrants," he said. Agents feel "their work is not valued. The message sent to the illegals is that even if you are put into deportation proceedings, we will let you go."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 05023.html

I guess we are hitting the point that laws don't matter any more! Sad but true.

Doesn't everyone find it interesting that Obama's administration can clear the visa backlog but not the immigration court and deportation backlog????

Dixie

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