Timothy A. Gambacorta Immigration Law Blog on Lawyers.com

PROSECUTORIAL DISCRETION = CONTINUED DEPORTATION

Monday, November 26, 2012 by Timothy A. Gambacorta

I am still hearing the same old tune; it’s just another big disappointment for undocumented immigrants with the continuing failure to pass immigration reform!

Immigration officials must make decisions everyday about how they exercise their power in that they must exercise their authority to decide what charges to bring and how to pursue immigration cases. The agency should focus its efforts on deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records rather than those with clean ones.

This “prosecutorial discretion” was supposed to reduce deportation rates by allowing ICE to look through its backlogged removal case docket and close cases for those people who have strong family ties to the United States, or came to U.S as children, or have served in the military, and most importantly, do not pose a threat to the country. The discretion includes taking into account several factors which includes the person’s education whether he has graduated from high school or has attended college.

DHS (Department of Homeland Security) officials say the review has been slowed by bureaucratic delays with criminal background checks of the immigrants, thus thousands more deportations could be suspended in the coming months. Immigrant leaders and Democratic lawmakers believe the review to be faltering due to little help from the administration and too few immigrants who would qualify. Immigrants are actually left in legal limbo without the immigration status or the authorization to work. Many cases are closed, deportations are suspended but not canceled, and immigrants do not receive work permits.

Although some individuals have interpreted prosecutorial discretion as an indication that the U.S Government is offering temporary amnesty to undocumented individuals, some also have taken prosecutorial discretion as an indication that they will not be deported despite the fact that they have no legal status.

But “prosecutorial discretion” never materialized—at least that what it seems. The Government is still prosecuting people in immigration court. New figures revealed a trend indicating that many fewer illegal immigrants who have families within the United States and no criminal records will still end up in immigration court in the near future. Sadly, the system is really not working. Many families are being separated and bled their selves dry just to get relief for a handful people. Anyone seeking to be placed in the removal proceedings, hoping to avoid the deportation, could still end up being deported. Now, how would one realize their American Dream when they are languishing in immigration limbo with no right to work and put food on the table?

How can the Obama Administration pledge to restore balance to a broken immigration system when we always get the same broken system? We received this new prosecutorial discretion with an enormous feeling of hope and at the same time only got very frustrated by the lack of comprehensive immigration reform. This, obviously, lets the immigrants ask whether or not they will be able to benefit from the new policy of “prosecutorial discretion.”

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Posted at 05:13 AM

Topic: Immigration