The American Civil Liberties Union is criticizing the Biden government’s new orientation to arrests and deportations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calling it a “disappointing setback.”
“The memorandum is a disappointing step back from the Biden administration’s previous commitments to break completely with the harmful deportation policies of the Trump and Obama presidencies,” said Naureen Shah, senior lawyer and political adviser to the ACLU, in a statement.
ICE OFFICIALS WILL NEED PRE-APPROVAL BEFORE ATTACHING SOME ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS UNDER THE NEW RULES
The civil rights group is reacting to a new memorandum issued this week, which tells ICE officials to focus on three categories of immigrants: those who pose a threat to national security; those who crossed the border since November 1; and those who committed “aggravated crimes”.
The directive is temporary, lasting three months, until the Department of Homeland Security can issue further guidance.
Authorities said the guidance does not explicitly prevent anyone from being arrested or deported. Instead, it directs resources to certain destinations. However, field officers seeking to arrest someone outside these three categories need approval from their chain of command.
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“By focusing our limited resources on cases that pose threats to national security, border security and public security, our agency will more effectively and efficiently carry out its law enforcement mission,” said ICE acting director Tae Johnson in an announcement. “Like any law enforcement agency at the local, state and federal level, we must prioritize our efforts to achieve the greatest security and protection impact.”
In the meantime, if officers wish to detain an illegal immigrant outside these categories, they will need prior approval from the chain of command.
While the memo is expected to lead to a significant drop in prisons, for leftist groups it is also not what they expected. Biden campaigned for a 100-day break in deportations, but his government’s action to implement such a measure was blocked in response to a Texas lawsuit.
The ACLU statement said that the guidance continues to give ICE freedom to “conduct operations that harm our communities and separate families”.
“The provisional enforcement priorities detailed today matter the injustices of the criminal legal system and will lead to continued disproportionate deportations of black and brown immigrants,” the statement said, while accusing the priorities of using “broad” assumptions of threats and presuming all lawbreakers. border are threats.
“We expect better from the Biden administration and believe that the next 90 days will continue to reaffirm the need to force ICE to reduce its operations, including ending ICE programs that use state and local police for immigration, such as the 287 g) program. and the use of ICE holders, “said Shah, before asking the administration” to put real limits on ICE. “
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The reaction shows the difficulty Biden likely faces in satisfying leftist groups on the issue of illegal immigration and related areas – some of which have called for the complete abolition of the ICE – even as he promotes radical reversals of Trump-era policies that have led to fears that this will provoke a new crisis on the southern border.
Biden has already ended Trump’s travel bans, halted the construction of the border wall, ended Trump’s “take and release” orders and moved to reverse the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP).
This week, asylum seekers kept in Mexico under the program began to be prosecuted in the United States. Meanwhile, Customs and Border Protection has resorted to the release of immigrants detained in the United States, something it hasn’t done since 2019.
Biden and Congressional Democrats introduced a comprehensive immigration bill that would give citizenship a path to about 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States
Republicans have raised the alarm about what they see as a crisis in the making, fueled by the White House.
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“In addition to his reckless policies and executive actions, President Biden’s rhetoric regarding amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants and destroying internal surveillance priorities is leading to a perfect storm on the southwest border,” said Republicans on the House Oversight Committee. in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week. “Without a radically different approach, a health, security and humanitarian crisis is inevitable.”