Immigration News

Government Links About the Deferred Action Process for Young People Who are Low Enforcement Priorities

June 19, 2012 by Matthew

Since Friday, the Government has put up several web pages with information about the “deferred action process for young people who are low enforcement priorities.” This is what the Government is referring to the program announced by President Obama on Friday. Most people are referring to it as Deferred Action for DREAMers or some variation thereof.

Here is the original announcement from Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.

Here is a link to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service’s (CIS) page on Deferred Action for DREAMers. The CIS page indicates that applications for Deferred Action for DREAMers are not being accepted until sometime after 60 days from the announcement on June 15, 2012.

Here is a link to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement page on Deferred Action for DREAMers. This page has a very detailed frequently asked questions section.

I Am Going to Wait to Celebrate

June 19, 2012 by Matthew

Now that I’m back from the AILA National Conference, I thought I would comment about President Obama’s announcement that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will be granting deferred action to certain non-citizens that would fall under the DREAM Act. It was really amazing to be at the AILA National Conference when the announcement was made. Being around so many immigration lawyers as the news was announced made it seem like there was electricity in the air. Everyone around me was excited and happy. Now I’m going to be the spoiled sport who complains . . .

For people who are in removal proceedings and have final orders of removal that qualify for deferred action, this will be good. For people who are not yet in proceedings, I am skeptical. It has been announced that they do not yet have a procedure for these people to apply for deferred action. It has been said that it will take 60 days for a procedure to be created. On April 2, 2012, it was announced that Citizenship Immigration Service (CIS) was going to accept waivers of unlawful presence from within the United States. Soon after, it was announced that CIS was not yet accepting these waivers and that they would not be accepted until regulations were promulgated. We’re still waiting for the regulations. About a year ago, it was announced that ICE would review files of removal cases for administrative closure as part of efforts to exercise prosecutorial discretion and focus on removing criminal aliens and aliens that pose a danger to the national security of the United States. Recently, it was announced that of 288,361 cases reviewed, only 4,403 cases had received administrative closure.

I have another reason to be skeptical. June is almost over. If DHS takes 60 days to create rules on accepting deferred actions requests for DREAMers, that means that they won’t be accepting these applications until about August 15, 2012. The election is November 8, 2012. If Obama is not re-elected, it does not appear that Romney will continue with this program. If Romney is elected president, then all of the people that are not currently in removal proceedings who apply for this new program will be bringing themselves to the attention of the Government. My advice for anyone who is not yet in removal proceedings that would benefit from this new policy is to wait until after the election to apply.

ICE Closure Rate of Immigration Court Removal Cases is Disappointing

June 13, 2012 by Matthew

On April 4, 2012, I blogged about how certain Immigration Judges would be canceling court, so that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could review cases for administrative closure. Last week, the New York Times reported on the results so far of the efforts of ICE to exercise prosecutorial discretion by administratively closing cases. According to the article, 288,361 cases have been reviewed and only 4,403 cases have been administratively closed. That’s a rate of approximately 2%. The fact that such a low rate of cases has been administratively closed has been criticized by many organizations, including the American Immigration Lawyers Association. While this is very disappointing to immigration advocates, it also seems to be a tremendous waste of resources. The point of ICE reviewing files for administrative closure was to clear the Immigration Court’s overburdened docket. I was in in immigration court a few weeks ago and an Immigration Judge scheduled me for a hearing in 2014 because that was the earliest date the Immigration Judge had on her calendar. To shut the system down to review 288,361 cases and only administratively close 4,403 cases does not seem like it was worth the effort.

The article does not discuss deferred actions, but provides statistics about deferred actions. A deferred action is when an alien is subject to a final order of removal and requests not to be deported for humanitarian reasons. In 2010, there were only 486 grants of deferred actions or stays of removal. By comparison, 1,973 deferred actions were granted so far in fiscal year 2012. Unlike the administrative closure statistics, this dramatic increase in deferred actions is something to be optimistic about.

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