ICE Expands Chances to Avoid Deportation for Thousands of Immigrants

The White House has expanded the margin of maneuver of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE, for its acronym in English) to dismiss deportation cases against immigrants with permanent residence (

green card

) or who have been in the country from an early age, and against the elderly, pregnant and seriously ill.

The new guidelines, sent to ICE prosecutors on May 27, do not oblige them to drop all cases of this nature, but they do offer new respite to immigrants who do not pose a danger to national security and who have not committed. serious crimes, according to the informational website BuzzFeed News.

They will also serve to alleviate the collapse of immigration courts, with more than 1.3 million backlog cases, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a data analysis project at Syracuse University in New York.

[A driver's license has changed the lives of thousands of undocumented people in the United States.

At least 16 states grant it]

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detain a man during an operation in Escondido, California, on July 8, 2019.AP Photo / Gregory Bull

[DHS formally prohibits the separation of families at the border]

Prosecutors should now consider the immigrant's circumstances, evaluating his ties to the United States, his work history, whether he serves in the Army, or his contributions to the community, for example. 

It is also advised to weigh other "imperative humanitarian factors", such as whether the accused is a caregiver on whom other people depend, or his status as a victim or witness in a criminal proceeding. 

Prosecutors are also urged to consider whether the immigrant could obtain legal status through other methods.

And when a defendant has a criminal record, the "extent, severity and timeliness" of the crime must be evaluated along with any evidence of reintegration and rehabilitation.

ICE confirms gynecological procedures for immigrant women in Georgia

June 4, 202100: 30

[The Biden government uses a facial recognition app to process asylum seekers at the border]

"The exercise of prosecutorial discretion, when appropriate, can [...] achieve fair and equitable results in individual cases and further the department's mission to administer and enforce immigration laws in an intelligent and sensible manner that promotes public trust, "wrote ICE chief attorney John Trasviña in the memorandum obtained by the informational website The Hill.

An ICE spokesperson noted that the new guidelines "renew the commitment of all the agency's attorneys to advance the interests of justice and build public confidence in the immigration system."

With information from The BuzzFeed News and The Hill.