Procecutorial Discretion Is Back! Who Benefits? |
On May 27, 2021, John Trasvia, the Principal Legal Advisor for ICE, sent a memo to government attorneys enabling them to use prosecutorial discretion to dismiss pending cases in Immigration Court and to refrain from placing certain persons in removal proceedings.
This memo (which is yet to be released to the public) could save many thousands of people, perhaps hundreds of thousands, from deportation.
Currently, there are over 1.3 million pending cases in the Immigration Courts. Considering that there are less than 500 Immigration Judges across the U.S., most Judges are overwhelmed with thousands of backlogged cases. In most instances, it can take years to obtain a merits hearing in Court.
As a former INS prosecutor (1980-82), my view is that the deportation system is a disaster for Judges, immigrants and our country. It can take years to deport a dangerous criminal. At the same time, persons with no criminal records who were brought to the U.S. as children and who are now college graduates may soon be subject to deportation.
It is necessary that the deportation system have priorities regarding who should be placed in removal proceedings in Immigration Court.
A little history...
In 2014, ICE prioritized the following classes of persons for deportation:
Persons convicted of serious crimes;
National security threats; and
Recent border crossers.
President Obama deported more than 400,000 people in his first year of office, and well over 1 million during his first 3 years. All in all, he deported more people than any other President in history.
Because of this, President Obama was derisively referred to as the "deporter in chief". However, his establishment of priorities in determining who got deported made our country a safer place, and his DACA program protected hundreds of thousands of law-abiding young people from deportation.
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Prosecutorial Discretion Under President Trump In 2017, under President Trump, prosecutorial discretion was largely done away with.
Anyone present in the U.S. without authorization could be placed in removal proceedings before an Immigration Judge. This caused the backlog of persons with cases in the Immigration Courts to swell to well over a million, overwhelming Immigration Judges and ICE attorneys alike.
Many persons found themselves placed in removal proceedings when their employment-based or family sponsored applications for immigration benefits were denied. Even physicians working for the U.S. Veterans Administration and registered nurses treating cancer patients in public hospitals found themselves in Immigration Court or were deported from the U.S.
Despite President Trump's harsh rhetoric about immigrants, the number of deportations declined. But a lot of very good people were deported. |
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Disclaimer: This newsletter is not intended to establish an attorney-client relationship. All information contained in this newsletter is generalized. Any reliance on information contained herein is taken at your own risk. All content Copyright Carl Shusterman 1995-2021, All rights reserved |
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