The Early Results Are In: 1 in 6 Removal Cases May Be Shelved

Julia Preston in the New York Times (“In Deportation Policy Test, 1 in 6 Offered Reprieve”) reports that a review of removal cases before the immigration court in Denver has identified about 16 percent that involve noncitizens who pose no security risk and will be allowed to remain in the United States. The undocumented immigrants will lack any legal status, however.

The Department of Homeland Security plans to extend the review to all pending (about 300,000) deportation cases. The court review is part of an effort by the Obama administration to ease the harsh impacts of enforcement on immigrant communities while also reducing huge backlogs in the immigration courts.

The review of removal cases was announced in August 2011 by the Department of Homeland Security, which issued new guidelines that allow some noncitizens facing deportation to have their cases stayed. DHS and the Department of Justice promised to review individually the approximately 300,000 open removal cases pending in the immigration courts. The idea was that immigrants facing deportation who are not a high priority for removal, such as those with no criminal record or who immigrated to the U.S. as young children, would have their cases stayed. The administration directive built on DHS policy on prosecutorial discretion released in 2011.

KJ