Ten Key Changes in Immigration Enforcement During Obama Years

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

August 21, 2012

http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2012/08/ten-key-changes-in-immigration-enforcement-during-obama-years/

Republicans call the changes “amnesty.” Democrats dub them “reforms.” And immigration advocates see them as “a beginning.”

Behind the labels is the reality that the Obama administration has overhauled immigration enforcement over the last three years, with nearly two dozen administrative changes that have lightened the day-to-day burden on many of the law-abiding immigrants who initially entered the United States illegally.

From targeting business owners instead of employees during worksite raids three months after taking office to offering temporary legal residence to as many as 1.8 million children of illegal immigrants last week, the administration has repeatedly exercised “prosecutorial discretion” to enact step-by-step changes without congressional approval or changes in federal law.

Here are ten key changes to immigration enforcement in the Obama administration:

April 30, 2009: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announces a move away from worksite raids and toward auditing of employers and investigations of hiring.

Jan. 4, 2010: ICE makes it easier for foreign nationals to gain temporary entry and residence in the United States if they have a “credible fear of persecution or torture.”

June 30, 2010: ICE Director John Morton orders shift in enforcement, detention and deportation to focus on undocumented immigrants who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security rather than targeting those who had merely entered illegally.

Aug. 20, 2010: ICE makes it easier for unlawful immigrants entangled in deportation proceedings to obtain quicker decisions on their cases.

June 17, 2011: ICE, with the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, directs ICE officers and attorneys to ensure that crime victims and witnesses are not deported.

Aug. 18, 2011: ICE initiates unprecedented review of all pending immigration court cases.

Jan. 4, 2012: ICE unveils new policy to prevent detained immigrants from being transferred to distant facilities if their family members or lawyers are nearby, “absent extraordinary circumstances.”

February 2012: ICE establishes standards for immigrant detentions to improve medical and mental health services, increase access to legal services and religious opportunities, improve communication with detainees with limited English proficiency, improve the process for reporting and responding to complaints, and increasing recreation and visitation.

March 13, 2012: ICE opened a custom-built, minimum-security detention center in Karnes City, Texas, to house immigrants facing civil actions such as deportation.

June 15, 2012: DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano announces qualifying youths brought to the United States by undocumented parents will be eligible to remain in the United States for renewable, two-year periods if they “do not present a risk to national security or public safety.’