Last week, Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) John Morton reminded ICE officials of their duty and obligation to use good judgment in the prosecution of immigration cases in a new memo. In a culture where many people still believe that "enforcing the law" and "removing people" are exactly the same, Morton's new memo is likely to shake some things up. While Morton's memo doesn't change the law in any way or end controversial programs like Secure Communities, it does serve as a much-needed guide for ICE officials on how, when and why to exercise prosecutorial discretion in immigration cases.
In the memo, Morton reminds ICE officers and attorneys that they should never assume that they are powerless to affect the outcome of a case -- instead, that authority rests with individual officers and attorneys to determine whether or not the positive factors in a given case outweigh the value of prosecuting that case. In fact, ICE officials need to do this regardless of whether or not immigrants or their attorney have asked for an exercise of prosecutorial discretion. The memo reiterates the need to triage cases based on ICE priorities, emphasizing the goal of putting limited resources into cases and activities that protect the country by going after those who seek to do it harm.
While Morton started down this road last year with a memo on enforcement priorities, the circumstances of this memo are significantly different. First, rather than simply reiterate the memos of past immigration officials, this memo synthesizes what has come before, offering a more detailed discussion of the nature of prosecutorial discretion, when it can be exercised, and what kind of factors should be taken into account. Second, the list of factors themselves is a more concrete framework for guiding decision-making. Government officials often like to couch admonishments to exercise good judgment in benign phrases like "totality of the circumstances" without giving concrete examples.
This time around, Morton lists 19 factors, ranging from age and when someone came to the country to community ties and likelihood of relief through a legal benefit in the future. In addition to this non-exhaustive list, the memo emphasizes that some factors should be red flags in a case, indicating the need to look and think carefully about whether it makes sense to go forward. These special factors include whether the person is a veteran or related to someone in the military, is a long time LPR, came to the United States at young age, is pregnant or nursing, has a serious physical or mental disability, is very young or very old, or has a serious health problem.
That's a lot to take into account, but will likely have a profound impact on DREAM students (who fit into many of the categories listed), vulnerable populations caught up in the immigration system, and military families where family members are in removal proceedings even as a spouse or child is on active military duty. None of these folks have any new form of relief, but under this memo, the direction is clear -- these are important factors to take into account when exercising judgment.
So what does the memo mean for future immigration cases? While there are no categorical pronouncements that all DREAM Act students shall receive deferred action or all Secure Communities cases will be halted, the Administration, by articulating the kinds of factors that should go into good decision-making, is signaling both what it finds important and what types of cases merit at least an individualized assessment. This is a long overdue contribution to smart immigration enforcement.
People need clear direction but they also need clear authority to know that they have the power -- the responsibility, actually -- to consider every single case as an individual life rather than a tally mark. Discretion is a difficult thing to exercise, but it is even harder when you have no sense that anyone will stand behind you. If ICE officials follow the guidance in this memo, they can take some comfort in knowing that individual discretion has been sanctioned from the top.
Admittedly, turning the latest Morton memo into reality will require a lot of hard work and monitoring both inside and outside the government. But government officials and advocates now have a new tool for doing the right thing -- and wise use of it promises to improve our immigration system one case at a time.
Cross-posted at Immigration Impact and Daily Kos.
Oh, here is me: I live in a poor third world country, I have 10 kids, ages 1-10.
This is an great story, I want to show it to my whole village, all of us are really poor (so we'll do jobs American won't), all of us want to better lives for our families, all of us have lots of kids (so we can ride this policy), all of us have no ties in the US (so legal immigration would take 10-20 years), oh i almost forgot, all of us have an American Dream.
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/nusablog/beckr/june-23-2011/hr-2164-has-six-aggressive-tools-end-grandfather-amnesty-loophole-existi
On June 11, 2010, ICE Union leaders around the nation issued a unanimous no confidence vote in ICE Director John Morton, citing gross mismanagement within the Agency as well as efforts within ICE to create backdoor amnesty through agency policy. Since the no confidence vote was released problems within the Agency have increased and the Director’s latest Discretionary Memo as just one example.
ICE worked hand-in-hand with immigrants rights groups on this policy, but excluded its own officers. This policy creates a way for every person here illegally to avoid arrest or detention, as officers we will never know who we can or cannot arrest. Under Director John Morton the agency presents written policies to the public, but then issues directives which ICE refuses to put in writing. Such policy changes, if known, would create a political outcry, or could place the public or ICE officers at risk. Our officers are already under orders not to make arrests or even talk to foreign nationals in most cases unless another agency has already arrested them; you won’t find that written in any public ICE policy.
Little wonder states are taking matters into their own hands.
And this Administration continues to babble about getting Americans JOBS – well Mary we know where 10 MILLION are ………………
LESLIE, Ga. (AP) — It's 3:25 p.m. in a dusty cucumber field in south Georgia. A knot of criminal offenders who spent seven hours in the sun harvesting buckets of vegetables by hand have decided they're calling it quits — exactly as crew leader Benito Mendez predicted in the morning.
Unless the cucumbers come off the vine soon, they will become engorged with seeds, making them unsellable. Mendez's crew of Mexican and Guatemalan workers will keep harvesting until 6 p.m., maybe longer. Not so for the men participating in a new state-run program aimed at replacing the Latino migrants Georgia farmers say they've lost to a new immigration crackdown with unemployed probationers.
"Tired. The heat," said 33-year-old Tavares Jones, who left early and was walking down a dirt road toward a ride home. He promised Mendez he'd return the next morning. "It's hard work out here."
Republican Gov. Nathan Deal started the experiment after farmers publicly complained they couldn't find enough workers to harvest labor-intensive crops such as cucumbers and berries because Latino workers — including many illegal immigrants — refused to show up, even when offered one-time or weekly bonuses. One crew who previously worked for Mendez told him they wouldn't come to Georgia for fear of risking deportation.
more:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gwt122ahCfGrdFzFV0AMukx0lrHw?docId=a16633ea3ad54cb29a6ec9c9e401720c
And do you know what the dopes do when they raid an employer? They make the company fire the workers and then let them all GO. Yes they go and get other jobs!
The good news is the SC has upheld state laws that will cut into this corrupt practice and it will spread – so that some day we won’t need the government to do anything.
Period.
For example, I represent this individual: http://action.dreamactivist.org/elier/
When I first got involved in this young man's case the head office in Washington ordered local chief counsel to agree to nothing other than voluntary deportation. Once the press got involved, and Senator Derbin put a poster sized image of him on the floor of the Senate, Washington's tune miraculously changed. I can assure you that the local government attorneys had no desire to deport my client, but were precluded by Washington from acting independently.
Point being, this administration wasn't willing to do a thing to help a DREAM Act eligible student until they were being embarrassed on national television, and the Hispanic electorate was put on notice.
I will reserve judgement until I see how this most recent memo is implemented, but if past conduct is any indication of future action I'm not holding my breath.
but until this administration is out it will only get worse. this is a blatant push to shackle ICE even more as we head to 2012.
Disgusting
In fact, the group most vocal about enforcing our immigration laws, the so-called Tea Partiers got its name from an event that defied an unjust legal law.
In 1773, a group of colonists in Boston boarded three English merchant ships and dumped the tea they carried into the harbor, the so-called "Boston Tea Party."
More law breaking which we revere today was perpetrated by British citizens who openly disobeyed the laws of Parliament and king, refused to pay taxes, and formed an insurgent army in 1776. Ironically, today’s self-styled patriots who have taken it upon themselves to protect our borders from the illegal hordes call themselves The Minutemen.
It’s a dirty little secret but the first illegal aliens in Texas came from Tennessee. Stephen Austin, the father of Anglo Texas, received permission in 1823 to bring “300 families” into the Tejas province after years of wrangling with the Mexican government. By that time, tens of thousands more Anglo squatters had moved into the region. These illegal immigrants, mostly from Tennessee, thumbed their noses at the Mexican government when asked to leave – or at least pay their taxes. So let’s not get too high on our horses about “illegal immigrants.” We’ve been there and done that.
African Slaves built the foundation of America for free and created the wealth that many corporations and many of Americas most wealthiest families still enjoy today. I refer you to Slavery and the Making of America. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/
Initially, colonists attempted to enslave the native population, but Native Americans proved to be ill suited to slavery, and they often choose to die rather than submit to slavery. After discovering that slavery was impractical, colonist then turned to exploiting Native American tribes through a series unbalanced treaties, and when the those treaties were resisted, extermination.
http://www.boisestate.edu/socwork/dhuff/us/chapters/chapter%202.htm
It was people of color -- Native American, Black, Hispanic, and Asian who built the structure of this country. Even the White House and Capitol Building were built by Black slaves.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/white-house-and-capitol-built-by-5amonth-slaves-707601.html
Land in Mexico or Tx was not allowed to be owned by anyone other than the Spanish or Mestizos. Because they were unable to settle the land, Mexico allowed empressarios to sell the land to people of other nations to help settle it. There were less than 4K people in all of Tx and it went clear up to Wyoming. They were unable to settle because of the desert and lack of irrigation and the Commanche and Apache raids. It is no secret, it is part of Tx history.
"
Hoping that more settlers would reduce the near-constant Comanche raids, Mexican Texas liberalized its immigration policies to permit immigrants from outside Mexico and Spain.[63] Under the Mexican immigration system, large swathes of land were allotted to empresarios, who recruited settlers from the United States, Europe, and the Mexican interior. The first grant, to Moses Austin, was passed to his son Stephen F. Austin after his death.
Austin's settlers, the Old Three Hundred, made places along the Brazos River in 1822.[64] Twenty-three other empresarios brought settlers to the state, the majority of whom were from the United States.[64][65] The population of Texas grew rapidly. In 1825, Texas had a population of approximately 3,500, with most of Mexican descent.[66] By 1834, Texas had grown to approximately 37,800 people, with only 7,800 of Mexican descent.[67]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas
Get them out-