As new examples in Ohio and Texas demonstrate, and as we have seen throughout the year and throughout the country, the Trump administration has done away with discretion and common sense deportation priorities. Said Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice: Instead of focusing on public safety threats, they are going after anyone...
Continue
»
We’ve seen it happen over and over again during the long months of the Trump Administration: an immigrant mother or father with US-citizen children, who has lived in the US for decades and committed no crimes, who has been checking in with ICE for years, who remains undocumented because...
Continue
»
A new report from Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) finds that, under Trump, prosecutorial discretion in the immigration courts “has largely been abolished.” In the last years of the Obama Presidency, prosecutors were empowered to prioritize their caseload by public safety threat and national security risk, closing cases of individuals...
Continue
»
John Kelly Thinks Immigration Judges’ Orders Should Be Final, Thomas Homan Thinks Immigrants Get Due Process; Here’s Why Neither is True Donald Trump is enacting his mass deportation agenda, and many of the people being deported fit a specific profile: they are mothers and fathers who have committed no...
Continue
»
When the Obama Administration announced new DHS enforcement policies last year, undocumented immigrants with deep roots in the U.S. should have felt some ease. In that memo, the government stated that officials should “exercise discretion based on individual circumstances,” and consider whether the individual presents a threat to “national...
Continue
»
An important new story from Dara Lind at Vox captures the disconnect between written directives from DHS and the implementation of said directives by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Looking at the case of Pastor Max Villatoro and its implications, Lind explores the issue of “prosecutorial discretion” and the implementation of DHS new deportation priorities memo...
Continue
»
Since President Obama’s immigration speech in San Francisco this week–and its disruption by Ju Hong, a DREAMer from South Korea–commentators have been trying to figure out whether Obama has the authority to stop deportations. For some reason (ahem), Politifact decided to examine exactly what Ju said to the President — and...
Continue
»
The Department of Homeland Security announced today that relatives of U.S. military members with clean criminal records can obtain “parole in place,” which gives them protection from deportation and the ability to apply for a green card if they qualify. From Alan Gomez at USA Today: The Department of Homeland...
Continue
»
Late last night, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided the home of Arizona DREAM leader Erika Andiola and detained her mother, Maria Arreola, and her brother, Heriberto Andiola Arreola. After immediate mobilization by the family’s supporters, and DREAMers and supporters from across the country, Heriberto and Maria were released...
Continue
»
Cross-Posted at The Sanctuary: How does someone go from being perceived as an asset to this country to someone who is quickly disposable? This is the question I ask myself in light of journalist Mario Guevara’s case and following José Antonio Vargas’ coming out as undocumented last year. Technically,...
Continue
»
