Navigating Uncertain Times: Friday Roundup - February 24, 2017

Navigating Uncertain Times:  Friday Roundup

Friday February 24, 2017

 

Welcome to our new effort  to keep you informed of the quick-paced changes in immigration – real and implied – that are taking place in our world today.  This regular feature titled “Navigating Uncertain Times: Friday Roundup” will summarize new developments that have occurred within the preceding week and to provide concise explanations of how these changes might affect you .  We hope to be able to provide a helpful summary each Friday – or as often as may be warranted by the pace of new developments in immigration law and practice.

We will continue to provide timely and thoughtful blogs on various areas of interest in immigration law from time to time, but we welcome you to this first installment of this regular feature.

On February 17, 2017, the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary, John Kelly, issued two (2) new Memoranda addressed to the various departments within Homeland Security such as ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs & Border Protection) implementing the enforcement priorities expressed in the recent Executive Orders issued by President Trump.

Border Security Memo

The first Memo, relating to ‘Border Security’ has, among many various provisions, some fairly significant changes to the manner in which immigration laws are enforced, including:

·         An effort to detain nearly all foreign nationals apprehended entering into the U.S. without inspection, rather than getting biometric information, and allowing them to remain in the country while awaiting the opportunity for a hearing on whether they are entitled to stay.  There are currently not enough detention facilities to house the anticipated number subject to this provision.

·         An effort to hire 5,000 more border protection agents.  At this point, Dept. of Homeland Security has been unable to fill the already-existing requirement that there be 21,370 border protection agents.

·         An effort to expand the process of deportation known as ‘Expedited Removal’.  [For clarification, the term ‘deportation’ is commonly used to refer to the forced removal of persons from the country; but the precise legal technical term is known as ‘removal’].   Expedited Removal is, as the name implies, a procedure that removes the individual without the opportunity to appear before an immigration court or hire a lawyer.  The present practice is to use ‘Expedited Removal’ only for foreign individuals encountered within 100 miles from the border within 14 days of entry.  The new provision expands this to include anyone anywhere in the U.S. who cannot prove they have been here continuously for the previous 2 years.

·         Those apprehended at the border not subject to expedited removal would be returned to the ‘contiguous country’ from which they entered, (i.e., Mexico or Canada), regardless of their nationality.  They would then have formal ‘removal’ proceedings from a facility across the border in the neighboring contiguous country.

 

Interior Security Memo

This Memo relating to enforcement in the interior of the country (beyond the narrow regions along the nation’s boundaries) may be more significant in terms of the breadth of applicability.  Because of the finite amount of resources available to remove foreign nationals who are not presently here lawfully, past administrations have focused enforcement priorities on removing persons with criminal records. 

The ‘Interior Security Memo’ describes various classes of persons who are removal ‘priorities’, but concludes with one class that includes anyone who has ‘committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense’ could include anyone who simply arrived in the U.S. without inspection.  This is a vast expansion of persons subject to removal.

It also supports the ‘fast-track’ removal process for the removal of persons included in these new ‘priorities’.

 

Look for additional explanation of these Memos in days to come – there are lots of issues to explore - but this should provide a brief introduction to some of the changes prompted by recent Executive Orders.