Thread: Policy changes urge discretion, spark review of pending deportation cases

Policy changes urge discretion, spark review of pending deportation cases

Nearly 11,000 deportation cases, deemed low priorities, could be set aside nationally

ByDave Harmon
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 1:21 a.m. Sunday, March 18, 2012
Published: 11:53 p.m. Saturday, March 17, 2012

By sweeping local jails and prisons for undocumented immigrants, Secure Communities has helped push deportations to record highs and brought the Obama administration political fire from both sides of the volatile debate over immigration policy.

Launched under the Bush administration, Secure Communities has expanded rapidly under President Barack Obama, spreading to more than 72 percent of the counties, police departments and other jurisdictions across the country. The administration has said it plans to install it in the remaining jurisdictions by next year. The program has not yet reached two of the nation's biggest population centers — New York and Chicago.

The program essentially adds an extra computer check to one that jails and prisons routinely do. When a suspect's fingerprints are sent to the FBI's national database to see if they have a criminal history, the FBI then sends the fingerprints to the Department of Homeland Security to be checked against immigration databases.

In June, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton — arguing that the agency's budget only allows it to pursue deportation against a limited number of people each year — instructed ICE agents to use more discretion when deciding which cases to pursue.

Yet the policy shift has faced resistance from many in ICE, who have said they shouldn't ignore undocumented immigrants, no matter how small their crimes. In January, the national ICE union, which represents more than 7,000 of the agency's more than 20,000 employees, urged its members to skip a training course on how to use discretion. Since the Morton memo, Travis County Jail records show that ICE agents still filed about 150 detainers on Class C offenders.

Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton said the directive puts ICE agents in a difficult position. "I think you're on a slippery slope on this discretion thing when you try to determine what type of detainers you're going to honor and which ones you're not," he said.

In addition to instructing ICE agents to use more discretion, the Obama administration in August ordered a systematic review of every deportation case pending in immigration courts throughout the country — roughly 300,000 cases in all. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a congressional committee that the goal was to "identify low priority cases and on a case-by-case basis, set those cases aside."

An ICE spokeswoman said the agency has reviewed about 160,000 cases so far and identified 10,800 that are candidates to be "administratively closed" — meaning the case isn't active anymore but can be reopened if the immigrant commits another offense. About 1,500 cases have been administratively closed, the official said. Those people don't get legal status but are allowed to remain in the country.

Critics of the administration's new policies say the administration is circumventing the law.

"This program keeps our neighborhoods safe by identifying illegal and criminal immigrants in police custody who have been arrested and fingerprinted," U.S. Rep Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, said in a written statement. "The changes made by the administration could open the door to allow millions of illegal and criminal immigrants to avoid current immigration laws."

University of Texas law professor Barbara Hines, co-director of UT's immigration clinic, said the change more accurately reflects Secure Communities' stated priority: finding and deporting the worst criminals and security risks.

"They should not be picking up people (for minor offenses) in the first place," she said. "ICE should be making the determination from the beginning that this isn't someone who needs to be put in the deportation system."

Contact Dave Harmon at 445-3645

Policy changes urge discretion, spark review of pending deportation cases

"They should not be picking up people (for minor offenses) in the first place," she said. "ICE should be making the determination from the beginning that this isn't someone who needs to be put in the deportation system."

If they are illegal, they already commited a crime!! Deport them all!!