This week, the Migration Policy Institute released a report, The Deportation Dilemma: Reconciling Tough and Humane Enforcement, which “analyze the current pipelines for removal and key trends in border and interior apprehensions, deportations and criminal prosecutions. ” The report begins: The United States has deported a record number of unauthorized... Continue »
Advocates Applaud U.S. Attorney Hickton for Delivering Justice, Urge Eric Holder to Follow Hickton’s Lead After a hard fought public campaign to reunite him with his U.S. citizen children, 24-year Ohio resident Jose Alfredo Ramos Gallegos received justice today. As Lisa Thompson of the Erie Times-News reports: U.S. Attorney David J.... Continue »
President Obama has been under heavy pressure from immigration reform advocates to address his record rate of deportations — and according to the Los Angeles Times, he may be considering key changes to detention and deportation policy. According to the Times, Obama may be considering bond hearings for detained... Continue »
Cross-posted from The Hill: Attorney General Eric Holder pushed back on Republicans’ attempt to micromanage the administration at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.  He said: “There is a vast amount of discretion that a president has — and, more specifically, that an attorney general has.  But that discretion has to... Continue »
Must-read at Politico is the story of Howard Dean Bailey, an immigrant from Jamaica who served his country — and then was deported. Bailey was 17 when he followed his mother from Jamaica to the US, immigrating legally with a green card.  After high school, he enlisted in the... Continue »
At The Hill today, David Leopold has an excellent summary of how the Department of Justice is unfortunately aiding the Department of Homeland Security in deporting record numbers of immigrants, by criminalizing those immigrants for nothing more than re-crossing the border to reunite with their families after deportation.  Read... Continue »
President Obama recently ordered a review of deportations, looking for ways to make the US immigration system more humane.  But as we and others have pointed out, we already know a lot of what needs to be fixed.  Case in point, in an op-ed at the Los Angeles Times today, former Acting... Continue »
The following is a press release distributed after Alfredo’s release.  View pictures and videos from today here. US Attorney David J. Hickton Continues to Use Limited Dept. Resources to Prosecute 24-Year Ohio Resident and Father of Two U.S. Citizens After a hard fought public campaign to reunite him with... Continue »
Recently, we’ve written much about Alfredo Ramos, the 40-year-old father of three who was indicted by a Grand Jury last week for crossing the border to reunite with his family. Undocumented entry into the US used to be a civil violation.  But increasingly, re-entry is a crime punishable with... Continue »
US Attorney, David J. Hickton, Uses Limited Dept. Resources to Prosecute Non-Criminal Immigrant Father, Who’s Been Model Citizen for 20 Years  Part of the Obama Administration’s “get tough” strategy on immigration has been to throw the book at ordinary undocumented immigrants and then claim credit for prioritizing the deportation... Continue »