The Department of Homeland Security recently adopted new policy guidance that limits the scope of enforcement to a narrower set of priorities than earlier guidance and provides “clearer direction to DHS enforcement agents, officers and attorneys”, stated the report, titled “Understanding the Potential Impact of Executive Action on Immigration Enforcement”.
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In 2014, Obama took another controversial executive action on immigration, offering temporary legal status to an estimated 4 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, a decision over which more than half of the 50 states are suing the president.
In a few cases, agents with ICE asked local law enforcement officials to hold inmates believed to be in the country illegally beyond the length of their jail terms so that they could be transferred to federal custody.
“MPI estimates that about 13 percent of unauthorized immigrants in the United States would be considered enforcement priorities under these policies, compared to 27 percent under the 2010-11 enforcement guidelines”, the report reads.
Testifying before the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security in April, CIS policy analyst Jon Freere noted that “one out of 10 births in the U.S.is to an illegal immigrant mother”.
MPI further estimates that the priority shift will reduce interior deportations from the U.S.by 25,000 annually. These sanctuary cities, as said by the report, are home to 5.9 million, or about 53 percent, of the illegal immigrant population in the United States.
The Priority Enforcement Program tried to answer those concerns. Like its predecessor Secure Communities, the program uses fingerprint data to identify potentially deportable noncitizens when the Federal Bureau of Investigation performs criminal background checks for local police.
It is a “significant narrowing of who falls into the priorities”, said Mark Rosenblum, deputy director of the institute’s program on US immigration policy. The legislation passed largely along party lines with a vote of 241-179.
But a report by the Center said illegal immigration was actually higher under the Bush administration, which could possibly undermine the Republicans’ attempt to sound tough on the issue.
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The numbers, out from the Center for Immigration Studies, show that as many as 1.7 million aliens entered the U.S. between 2009 and 2013, and an additional 790,000 people joined the illegal population by overstaying visas or sneaking into the country between mid-2013 and May 2015.
