ImmigrationProf Blog

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Study Estimates the Impact of New Priority Enforcement Policies on Deportation Numbers

Immigration Impact reports on a Migration Policy Institute study on the potential impacts to the successor to the much-criticized Secure Communities program, which allowed for the removal of many long term residents who had been arrested -- not even convicted -- of minor crimes. Remember the "tamale lady" in Sacramento, the undocumented woman arrested for trespassing in front of a Wal-Mart as she sold homemade tamales to support her U.S. citizen children.

While much of the attention to the Obama administration's announcement of executive actions on immigration in November 2014 has focused on key deferred action programs, two changes that have not faced legal challenge are in the process of being implemented and may substantially affect the U.S. immigration enforcement system. These changes include the adoption by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of new policy guidance on which categories of unauthorized immigrants and other potentially removable noncitizens are priorities for enforcement, and the replacement of the controversial Secure Communities information-sharing program with a new, more tailored Priority Enforcement Program (PEP).

The new policy guidance, which builds on previous memoranda published by the Obama administration in 2010 and 2011, further targets enforcement to noncitizens who have been convicted of serious crimes, are threats to public safety, are recent illegal entrants, or have violated recent deportation orders. MPI estimates that about 13 percent of unauthorized immigrants in the United States would be considered enforcement priorities under these policies, compared to 27 percent under the 2010-11 enforcement guidelines. The net effect of this new guidance will likely be a reduction in deportations from within the interior of the United States as DHS detention and deportation resources are increasingly allocated to more explicitly defined priorities.

The Migration Policy Institute released a new report that examines the potential impact of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) new policy guidance for immigration enforcement, which attempts to focus immigration enforcement more specifically on certain categories of individuals while, according to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, “deprioritizing those undocumented who have been here for years, committed no serious crimes, and have in effect become integrated members of society.

Based on analyses of DHS administrative data, MPI estimates that the new enforcement priorities will result in a reduction of interior removals of 25,000 cases yearly—assuming strict adherence in the implementation of the guidance. This new policy guidance constitutes an attempt to redefine the allocation of detention and deportation resources so that the enforcement focus is especially placed on individuals who have committed serious crimes, are threats to public safety, are recent unauthorized entrants, or have recent deportation orders.

- See more at: http://immigrationimpact.com/2015/07/24/study-estimates-the-impact-of-new-priority-enforcement-policies-on-deportation-numbers/#sthash.avRW6HTD.dpuf

According to MPI’s estimates, about 9.6 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. do not meet the new enforcement priorities and, therefore, should not be removed. This is hardly surprising since, as previous studies have shown, immigrants are less likely than the native-born to commit serious crimes and a significant portion of the unauthorized population has lived in the country for a relatively long period of time and has strong ties to the U.S.

- See more at: http://immigrationimpact.com/2015/07/24/study-estimates-the-impact-of-new-priority-enforcement-policies-on-deportation-numbers/#sthash.avRW6HTD.dpuf