Deportations Continue, Even for Immigrants with No or Minor Offenses

“Low Priority Immigrants Still Swept Up in Net of Deportation,” is the headline for an article written by Julia Preston of the New York Times.  Despite President’s disappointment with the Supreme Court’s decision on DAPA and expanded DACA,”[s]till, deportations continue, thousands every week.” The article emphasizes how the Obama Administration’s enforcement priorities include the removal of individuals who arrived to the country recently (since January 2014), as well as those with fairly minor convictions (such as even a single DUI). And while the Supreme Court’s decision prevents the Administration from offering across-the-board protection to those who are not enforcement priorities and otherwise qualify for DAPA, the decision does not change (and did not involve) the Administration’s commitment to removing those who fall within the priorities. 

The article contains the particularly troubling story of Wildin Acosta, a 19-year old boy from Honduras who sought asylum at the border in 2014 November at age 17. Due to a missed court date, he was ordered removed in absentia, according to Preston.  But his arrival to the US in 2014 made him a high priority for removal, and he was apprehended by ICE on his way to school.  He has since been detained for five months in Lumpkin, GA. As his attorney, Evelyn Smallwood, stated:  “The administration has said it as as important to remove Wildin as it is to remove a drug trafficker or a terrorist.”

-JKoh