May
14
After ICE Director John Morton issued a memo last June outlining how and when ICE officials should exercise prosecutorial discretion in immigration cases, many were optimistic that the memo’s implementation would relieve backlogs and help the agency focus on higher priority immigration cases. Months later, however, folks are finding that one large group of people …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/05/14/immigrants-without-legal-representation-not-benefitting-from-prosecutorial-discretion/
Apr
11
As immigration becomes an ever more controversial part of the American debate, conversations often turn to details about legislation and court battles rather than questioning whether fundamental principles of justice are being applied throughout our immigration system. Two new reports released today, however, address some of these key principles, such as the idea of proportionality (whether …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/04/11/does-the-punishment-fit-the-crime-experts-examine-proportionality-and-discretion-in-our-immigration-system/
Apr
02
Immigration enforcement and deportation have a particularly devastating impact on mixed status families, that is, families who have one or more direct members who are undocumented. When parents are deported, families face impossible decisions about whether their family will be separated or whether U.S. citizen kids will be de facto deported along with their parents. …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/04/02/ice-deported-more-than-46000-immigrants-with-u-s-citizen-children-last-year-report-finds/
Mar
30
The Washington Post and Huffington Post are reporting that ICE’s ongoing review of existing deportation cases will expand to six new cities in the coming months. Initially launched in Baltimore and Denver in 2011, the initiative will soon expand to Seattle, Detroit, New Orleans and Orlando, followed by Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/03/30/review-of-immigration-cases-expands-to-half-dozen-new-cities/
Mar
14
Late last year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) instructed its attorneys to review matters pending before immigration courts in search of low-priority cases warranting prosecutorial discretion. But of the approximately 300,000 immigrants now in deportation proceedings, how many stand to potentially benefit from the initiative? In recent days, immigrant advocates have fretted the figure could …
Permanent link to this article: http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/03/14/crunching-and-clarifying-the-numbers-on-prosecutorial-discretion/
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/
Immigration Impact is a project of the American Immigration Council.
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