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Understanding Prosecutorial Discretion in Immigration Law
Frustrated by the lack of comprehensive immigration reform, many advocates, from grassroots community organizers to Members of Congress, have begun calling on President Obama to take action. They want the President and his administration to use the power of the executive branch to defer removals, revisit current policies and priorities, and interpret the law as compassionately as possible. The specific requests vary greatly. Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Richard Lugar (R-IN), for instance, last year asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to defer the removal of young people who qualified for legal permanent residence until such time as their legislation, the DREAM Act, became law. In April 2011, nineteen Democratic and Independent U.S. Senators, including Senators Harry Reid (D-NV), Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Kristin Gillibrand (D-NY), reiterated the call to stop the removal of all students who meet the strict requirements of the DREAM Act. While the DREAM Act is frequently invoked, many community groups have also called for exercising prosecutorial discretion in individual cases by declining to put people in removal proceedings, terminating proceedings, or delaying removals in cases where people have longstanding ties to the community, U.S.-citizen family members, or other characteristics that merit a favorable exercise of discretion.
Read MoreGeorgia Gov. Nathan Deal Signs Arizona-Style Enforcement Law
Today, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed HB 87—an Arizona-style immigration law which allows police to investigate the immigration status of certain suspects and requires businesses to verify work eligibility of new hires—into law, despite the threat of economic boycotts and negative fiscal impacts. Georgia’s state legislature passed HB 87 last month amid outcries from businesses […]
Read MoreImmigrant Community Needs White House Muscle to Move Immigration, Politics and All
Plenty of people are calling this week’s events—especially the President’s speech on immigration in El Paso—pure politics. And some are rightly criticizing Administration policies—such as record levels of deportations—as inconsistent with the broader vision of immigration and economic prosperity the President outlined in El Paso. But placed in a broader strategic context, the El Paso […]
Read MorePresident Obama Continues To Walk Immigration Tightrope
President Obama delivered a heartfelt commencement address this weekend at Miami-Dade College that once again showed the difficult tightrope he walks on immigration. On the one hand, he reminded his listeners yet again how important immigration reform, including passage of the DREAM Act, is to the continued moral and economic vitality of the country. On […]
Read MoreCongresswoman Zoe Lofgren Demands Investigation into ICE’s Secure Communities Program
Some would argue that ICE’s Secure Communities program has been fraught with problems ever since it launched in 2008—from concerns over the lack of federal oversight to questions regarding the criminality of immigrants targeted. But after months of back and forth over how and whether jurisdictions are able to opt-out of this immigration enforcement program […]
Read More22 Senators Demand President Obama Exercise Executive Action on Immigration
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is one of the letter’s 22 signators. As it becomes increasingly evident that Congress is too mired in politics to reform our broken immigration system, a steady chorus demanding executive action is growing. This week, 22 U.S. Senators, including Majority Leader Harry Reid, sent a letter to President Obama asking him […]
Read MoreFour Cheers for the Ninth Circuit’s Ruling on SB 1070
In a clean sweep for the rule of law, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a preliminary injunction yesterday against four key provisions of SB 1070—Arizona’s notoriously misguided attempt to drive undocumented immigrants from the state. The court’s comprehensive ruling left in place a lower court decision from July which temporarily […]
Read MoreHouse Subcommittee Battles Diversity in U.S. Immigration System
Opponents of immigration reform are often quick to differentiate their disdain for unauthorized immigration and their alleged support of legal immigration. But finding evidence of their support for legal immigration has always been difficult. Over the past several months, the House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement has conducted several hearings where some members have […]
Read MoreState Legislators Continue to Throw Restrictive Immigration Measures Overboard
Throughout the months-long debate over restrictive immigration measures, many state lawmakers have considered the fiscal and political impacts and decided to throw them overboard. This week was no different as opposition to costly enforcement legislation continued. A tough immigration bill was likely killed in Kansas this week after the House refused to move the bill […]
Read MoreNew “E-Verify Self Check” Pilot Program is Not a Cure-All
BY TYLER MORAN, NATIONAL IMMIGRATION LAW CENTER E-Verify has a problem: Washington politicians want to force American employers to use the electronic employment verification system, but the system is still not ready for prime time. On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) took a step toward remedying the database error rates by announcing E-Verify […]
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