California, District 44
Holding the Obama Administration to Its Word on Prosecutorial Discretion
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 suspended. At the other end, a government attorney invoked ICE’s prosecutorial discretion policy during an argument this week before the Supreme Court. While both instances offer encouraging signs, they also demonstrate that the strength of the policy depends not on what’s been said in the past, but on how it will be implemented in the future. Read More
ICE Releases Memo Outlining Justification for Making Secure Communities Mandatory
An October 2010 ICE memo from ICE Deputy Legal Advisor Riah Ramlogan to ICE Assistant Deputy Director Beth Gibson has finally been made public after a protracted legal battle. The nine page memo, obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation, presents ICE’s legal arguments for making the Secure Communities Program mandatory for all jurisdictions in 2013. This memo overrides and contradicts an earlier ICE memo that argued that S-Comm was not mandatory. Read More
DHS Begins Review of Deportation Cases, Issues Awaited Prosecutorial Discretion Guidelines
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 new training modules for all ICE field agents on prosecutorial discretion. The package of initiatives are a follow up to ICE Director John Morton’s June 17th memo which describes how, when, and why ICE officials should exercise prosecutorial discretion in immigration cases. Read More
Prosecutorial Discretion Survey Demonstrates Need for More Training, Consistency Across ICE Field Offices
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 American Immigration Council takes a look at how well those guidelines are translating into actual practice at ICE offices around the country. While the results show that prosecutorial discretion was applied in some cases, the majority of cases show that ICE field offices are confused and hesitant to make decisions, demonstrating the need for more guidance and training from DHS headquarters. Read More
Non-Citizens Eager to Serve in U.S. Military Blocked by Government Bureaucracy
BY MARGARET D. STOCK, COUNSEL TO THE FIRM, LANE POWELL PC This Veterans Day, we celebrate those who have proudly served in the U.S. military, including immigrants. Immigrants have long served in all branches of the U.S. military as infantry soldiers, medics, foreign-language translators, and in every other job open to them. At last count, foreign-born service members made up about 8% of the 1.4 million military personnel on active duty. However, some highly qualified non-citizens have been blocked from serving due to the Obama Administration’s suspension of a recruiting program called the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI). Frustrated by the government bureaucracy responsible for halting MAVNI, those non-citizen volunteers are petitioning the government in hopes of reopening the program. Read More
Restrictionist GOP Members Rely on Scare Tactics in Hearing on Prosecutorial Discretion
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 year as “trying to make good calls and good judgments” within a series of tough choices and finite resources. Members opposed to the Administration’s policies had a hard time rebutting the resource point, deciding instead to rely on scare tactics and hyperbolic comparisons to attack the guidance. Read More
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