The
administration has ordered agents to begin ignoring many of the illegal
immigrants they encounter in prisons and jails, as President Obama begins to implement
a lesser-known part of his deportation amnesty policy — though his program
isn’t sitting well with either side of the immigration debate.
In
a nod to so-called sanctuary cities, the president’s policy prohibits U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from targeting most illegal
immigrants for deportation, including most of those who come into contact with
state and local police.
Agents
can still troll jails and prisons, but are told to no longer go after illegal
immigrants with offenses such as drug possession, theft or fraud if it involved
stealing an identity to try to further their unlawful presences in the U.S.,
according to details of the policy released Tuesday by the House Judiciary
Committee.
Even
some illegal immigrants who are charged with serious felonies but are released
by local authorities won’t be picked up by immigration agents until they are
convicted, the committee said.
Source:http://minutemennews.com/2015/06/obama-extending-amnesty-to-illegals-in-prisons-jails/
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/
The administration has
ordered agents to begin ignoring many of the illegal immigrants they encounter
in prisons and jails, as President Obama begins to implement a lesser-known
part of his deportation amnesty policy — though his program isn’t sitting well
with either side of the immigration debate.
In a nod to so-called
sanctuary cities, the president’s policy prohibits U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement agents from targeting most illegal immigrants for deportation,
including most of those who come into contact with state and local police.
Agents can still troll
jails and prisons, but are told to no longer go after illegal immigrants with
offenses such as drug possession, theft or fraud if it involved stealing an
identity to try to further their unlawful presences in the U.S., according to
details of the policy released Tuesday by the House Judiciary Committee.
Even some illegal
immigrants who are charged with serious felonies but are released by local authorities
won’t be picked up by immigration agents until they are convicted, the
committee said.
“President Obama is
needlessly endangering our communities,” committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte,
Virginia Republican, said in a statement announcing his findings on the
program. “It’s past time for the Obama
Administration to get its priorities
straight and protect the American people instead of their political interests.”
Mr. Obama announced the
policy as part of his Nov. 20 amnesty, but details of what the Homeland
Security Department dubbed the Priority Enforcement Program are just emerging.
The program replaces
Secure Communities, a George W. Bush-era program that the Obama
administration embraced as a way to
boost deportation numbers while focusing on criminals rather than on
rank-and-file illegal immigrants who hadn’t had serious run-ins with the law.
Under Secure
Communities, ICE agents and officers scoured prisons, jails and booking sheets
for illegal immigrants they could deport.
Immigrant rights
advocates argued that Secure Communities was poisoning relations between police
and legal and illegal immigrants, making Hispanics in particular fear
interactions with authorities and making them less likely to report crime
altogether. That made them more susceptible to become victims, undercutting
public safety goals, the advocates said.
They also said the administration was deporting illegal immigrants charged with
or convicted of minor offenses such as traffic violations.
The advocates won
victory after victory in city and county councils and even some state legislatures,
as lawmakers passed legislation prohibiting police from honoring detainer
requests from ICE, which asked local police to hold illegal immigrants for
pickup.
Some federal courts
ruled that the detainers weren’t binding because federal agents showed no
probable cause, meaning immigrants were being detained in violation of their
constitutional rights.
Mr. Obama bowed to the
court rulings and political pressure. He scrapped Secure Communities in
November and announced the replacement Priority Enforcement Program.
Under the program,
agents will ignore many of the illegal immigrants they encounter and will
change the type of cooperation they request from state and local police. Agents
generally won’t ask a department to hold an immigrant who otherwise would be
released, but instead will ask to be notified so they can be on hand for the
release and have the immigrant transferred.
In limited instances,
agents will still issue detainer requests, but will have to assert probable
cause so police have a reason to detain people beyond their normal release
dates.
Story
Continues → “ICE will only seek
transfer of individuals in state and local custody in specific, limited
circumstances. ICE will only issue a detainer where an individual fits within
DHS’s narrower enforcement priorities and ICE has probable cause that the
individual is removable,” the agency said in a brochure describing the program.
“In many cases, rather than issue a detainer, ICE will instead request
notification (at least 48 hours, if possible) of when an individual is to be
released. ICE will use this time to determine whether there is probable cause
to conclude that the individual is removable.”
ICE Director Sarah R.
Saldana told Congress last week that the program is winning converts among
police departments that balked at Secure Communities. She said it’s better to
cooperate with communities than to be adversaries.
“That’s what we’re
working towards, and that’s how we got Los Angeles to say they’d cooperate with
us, and Contra Costa as well in California, and we’re working with several
other jurisdictions,” she said. “Always best to try to get people to come to
the table to discuss matters than to force things down their throats.”
Ms. Saldana ran into
trouble this year when she told Congress that she would welcome a law ordering
sanctuary cities and counties to cooperate, saying it endangers public safety
and her agents’ lives to have some of the illegal immigrant criminals released.
Hours later, after
having been contacted by her superiors, Ms. Saldana retracted her statement,
saying she didn’t believe it made sense to order locals to cooperate.
Immigrant rights
advocates say the Priority Enforcement Program is still a problem because
agents can issue detainers, even if they do it less often. The advocates warned
that police who comply with the requests are still risking legal problems with
the courts.
“PEP creates a trap
for unwary local law enforcement agencies, which will be subject to legal
liability should they choose to participate,” said Jessica Karp Bansal,
litigation director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.
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