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Certain Non-criminal Removal Cases to be Reviewed & Administratively Closed

Administrator — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:25:55 +0000

On August 18, the Obama Administration announced the formation of a high-level working group to review approximately 300,000 pending removal cases and administratively close proceedings against individuals found to be a “low” enforcement priority. The review process, which will be conducted by members of the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, is intended to ease the tremendous backlog in the immigration courts and to ensure that government resources are focused on cases involving the government’s highest immigration enforcement priorities—public safety, national security and border security. In determining whether to exercise prosecutorial discretion, working group members will take relationships of LGBT families into account, just as they will all other family ties. Although no category of cases will receive a blanket exercise of favorable prosecutorial discretion, certain categories of individuals—including veterans, long-time permanent residents, minors, the elderly, individuals who have been present since childhood, individuals with serious disabilities or health issues, nursing or pregnant women, and victims of domestic violence or other serious crimes—will receive particular attention. Respondents whose cases are administratively closed will be eligible to apply for an employment authorization document through USCIS.

Report on Unconstitutional Immigration Raids

Administrator — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:18:30 +0000

A new report from the Cardozo Immigration Justice Clinic entitled, “Constitution on ICE: A Report on Immigration Home Raid Operations,” is an analysis of the available evidence regarding the prevalence of constitutional violations occurring during ICE home raids. Through two Freedom of information Act lawsuits, the authors of this report obtained significant samples of ICE arrest records from home raid operations in New York and New Jersey. According to the author’s analysis of these records, together with other publicly available documents, there is an established pattern of misconduct by ICE agents in the New York and New Jersey Field offices. Further, the report shows that such pattern may be a widespread national phenomenon reaching beyond these local offices. The pattern of misconduct involves ICE agents illegally:
• entering homes without legal authority – for example, physically pushing or breaking their way into private residences;
• seizing non-target individuals during home raid operations– for example, seizing innocent people in their bedrooms without any basis;
• searching homes without legal authority – for example, breaking down locked doors inside homes; and
• seizing individuals based solely on racial or ethnic appearance or on limited English proficiency.

Follow link to report: http://www.cardozo.yu.edu/uploadedFiles/Cardozo/Profiles/immigrationlaw-741/IJC_ICE-Home-Raid-Report%20Updated.pdf

Reform of the Immigration Detention System

Administrator — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:05:09 +0000

With these reforms, ICE will move away from our present decentralized, jail-oriented approach to a system wholly designed for and based on ICE’s civil detention authorities. The system will no longer rely primarily on excess capacity in penal institutions. In the next three to five years, ICE will design facilities located and operated for immigration detention purposes. These same reforms will bring improved medical care, custodial conditions, fiscal prudence, and ICE oversight.