New ICE Guidance on Immigrant Crime Victims

Earlier this week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced “an updated policy to support noncitizen victims of crime. ICE will help victims seek justice and facilitate access to immigration benefits for noncitizens who have been victims of crime. This new policy is designed to improve victims’ ability to seek justice against perpetrators of crime, including in cases of human trafficking.”

Camilo Montoya-Galvez for CBS News reports on the new ICE guidance”

“By minimizing the `chilling effect’ of potential deportation, interim ICE Director Tae Johnson said in a memo to agents, the policy change can encourage immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission to contact law enforcement and assist investigations.

`When victims have access to humanitarian protection, regardless of their immigration status, and can feel safe in coming forward, it strengthens the ability of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, including ICE, to detect, investigate, and prosecute crimes,’ Johnson wrote in his memo.”