Jan
27
The President’s State of the Union address this week re-iterated some of his key themes on immigration—support for comprehensive reform, dismay that DREAM Act students and foreign students educated in this country have no way to legalize their status, and a belief that he’s done enough to the secure the border. More importantly, he framed …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/01/27/following-state-of-the-union-address-president-obama-needs-to-follow-through-on-immigration-reforms/
Jan
20
Signs that ICE is invested in the “Morton Memo” and subsequent guidance on prosecutorial discretion are beginning to show up at both ends of the legal spectrum. At one end, the New York Times reported yesterday that approximately one in six cases reviewed in a pilot program at the Denver immigration court may be indefinitely …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/01/20/holding-the-obama-administration-to-its-word-on-prosecutorial-discretion/
Dec
21
A review of immigration issues for 2011 reads like a rollercoaster of American politics. Some state legislatures, for example—backed by restrictionists groups—attempted to pass harsh enforcement-only immigration laws. Some states succeeded; others struck down these bills; and a few even passed progressive immigration laws like tuition equity for undocumented students. At the federal level, Congress …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/12/21/immigration-impact%e2%80%99s-top-11-blogs-of-2011/
Nov
17
Today, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) directed ICE attorneys to begin a review process of current immigration cases pending before immigration courts in order to close or dismiss those cases warranting prosecutorial discretion. The attorneys also received additional guidance on how to apply discretion in certain low priority cases. At the same time, DHS announced …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/11/17/dhs-begins-review-of-deportation-cases-issues-additional-prosecutorial-discretion-guidelines/
Nov
14
It’s been almost six months since ICE Director John Morton issued new guidelines on prosecutorial discretion to help ICE agents, attorneys and other officials distinguish between high priority cases (national security threats and serious criminals) and low priority cases (DREAM Act students). A recent survey released by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/11/14/prosecutorial-discretion-survey-demonstrates-need-for-more-training-consistency-across-ice-field-offices/
Oct
13
The luster may be wearing off Republican attacks on DHS’s prosecutorial discretion policies. Efforts to paint the prioritization of cases as “backdoor amnesty” didn’t seem to go anywhere in yesterday’s hearing on immigration enforcement in the Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement. ICE Director John Morton defended the prosecutorial discretion guidance he issued earlier this …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/10/13/restrictionist-gop-members-rely-on-scare-tactics-in-hearing-on-prosecutorial-discretion/
Sep
07
DHS’s recent announcement on enforcement priorities suggests that the agency, along with the Department of Justice, is serious about trying to target those persons who pose a threat to public safety. Unfortunately, there has been little official communication from either agency about the initiatives underway to review current immigration court cases or to issue broader …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/09/07/president-obama%e2%80%99s-very-legal-move-on-immigration/
Sep
01
The attacks on the Obama Administration from some immigration restrictionists are likely to escalate when Congress returns from its August recess, given the recent announcement that DHS intends to put muscle behind its prosecutorial discretion guidelines. The plan to review 300,000 immigration cases to assess whether they fall within the Administration’s enforcement priorities has already …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/09/01/like-previous-administrations-obama-is-using-existing-laws-to-improve-our-immigration-system/
Aug
26
While the prospect of temporary immigration reprieves—made possible by DHS’s recent announcement that it will standardize its use of prosecutorial discretion—has excited many people, the devil remains in the details. Attorneys and community groups continue to caution that no one knows how fast or how wide spread this relief will be. Part of the confusion …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/08/26/some-hopeful-early-signs-that-prosecutorial-discretion-is-being-exercised/
Aug
25
Anti-immigrant activists are nothing if not predictable. They scream “amnesty” whenever any administration or congress tries to inject a little justice and humanity into our broken immigration system. So, naturally, the anti-immigrant crowd has been screaming “amnesty” without pause since August 18—the day the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it would review all …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2011/08/25/anti-immigrant-activists-hysterical-over-recent-dhs-guidelines/
Immigration Impact is a project of the American Immigration Council.
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