An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in San Diego, California.
(photo: David Maung/Getty)
Internal Memo Reveals ICE Officers Have Free Rein to Detain Any Undocumented
Immigrant
By Marcelo Rochabrun, ProPublica
07 July 17
A directive from the head of ICEs enforcement unit appears to push for
tougher action than the Trump administration has publicly promised.
The head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit in charge of
deportations has directed his officers to take action against all
undocumented immigrants they may cross paths with, regardless of criminal
histories. The guidance appears to go beyond the Trump administrations
publicly stated aims, and some advocates say may explain a marked increase
in immigration arrests.
In a February memo, Matthew Albence, a career official who heads the
Enforcement and Removal Operations division of ICE, informed his 5,700
deportation officers that, effective immediately, ERO officers will take
enforcement action against all removable aliens encountered in the course of
their duties.
The Trump administration, including Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly,
has been clear in promising to ramp up immigration enforcement, but has so
far emphasized that its priority was deporting immigrants who posed a public
safety threat. Indeed, Kelly, to whom Albence ultimately reports, had seemed
to suggest a degree of discretion when he told the agencies under his
command earlier this year that immigration officers may initiate
enforcement actions against any undocumented person they encountered. That
guidance was issued just a day before Albence sent the memo to his staff.
A spokesman with ICE said Albences directive did not represent a break with
Kellys stated aims, and was consistent with current agency policies.
The memo directly supports the directions handed down in the executive
orders and mirrors the language ICE consistently uses to describe its
enforcement posture, the spokeswoman, Sarah Rodriguez, said in a statement.
As Secretary Kelly and Acting Director [of ICE] Homan have stated
repeatedly, ICE prioritizes the arrest and removal of national security and
public safety threats; however, no class or category of alien in the United
States is exempt from arrest or removal.
However, Sarah Saldaña, who retired in January as head of ICE for the Obama
administration, said the wording in the memo would have real consequences
for undocumented immigrants.
When you use the word will instead of may you are taking it a step
further, said Saldaña. This is an important directive and people at ERO
are bound by this directive unless someone above Matt Albence comes back and
says, You went too far. I dont think you are going to find that person in
this administration.
David Bier, an immigration policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute,
said the fallout from the memo has been evident for months. The memo
explains what we have actually been seeing on the ground, Bier said,
asserting that immigrants without criminal backgrounds were routinely being
arrested and ordered deported.
Since 2008, Congress had traditionally used its annual spending bill to
instruct the secretary of homeland security to prioritize the deportation of
convicted immigrants based on the severity of their crimes, but that
language was left out of this years bill, helping to pave the way for
broader enforcement.
In recent months, the number of undocumented immigrants arrested who are
considered to be non-criminals has risen. (Under the law, merely being here
illegally is not a crime. Rather, its a civil violation.) Between February
and May, the Trump administration arrested, on average, 108 undocumented
immigrants a day with no criminal record, an uptick of some 150 percent from
the same time period a year ago.
For example, an Ecuadorean high schooler was detained by ICE agents who
showed up at his home in upstate New York hours before his senior prom in
June. Three restaurant workers targeted for immigration violations were
arrested in May in Michigan after ICE agents ate breakfast where they
worked. A Salvadoran man is facing deportation in Houston after voluntarily
showing up to an ICE office for a routine check-in.
The ICE memo acknowledges that space in detention facilities limits the
number of undocumented immigrants who can be detained upon apprehension.
Still, it says ICE officials are mandated to begin deportation proceedings
against all undocumented immigrants with whom they cross paths even if
those apprehended remain free as they face an immigration judge, a process
that can take years.
Others may be swiftly deported if they are found to already have final
deportation orders signed by an immigration judge. As of May 2016, there
were 930,000 undocumented immigrants who had been ordered deported but
remained freely in the country, according to ICE statistics.
My concern is that what you end up doing is siphoning away resources that
should go to the public safety threats, said John Sandweg, who preceded
Saldaña as acting ICE director.
Under Obama-era guidelines, undocumented immigrants with no criminal record
but perhaps with a pending deportation order could only be arrested if
an agents supervisor determined their deportation would serve an important
federal interest.
Homan has appeared to acknowledge the impact of the agencys more aggressive
approach even if he did not mention Albences explicit direction.
There has been a significant increase in non-criminal arrests because we
werent allowed to arrest them in the past administration, Homan told a
House committee. You see more of an uptick in non-criminals because were
going from zero to 100 under a new administration.
Both Homan and Albence are career employees who have worked for decades
helping the government enforce immigration laws. Before Homan was promoted
to lead ICE, he led ERO, with Albence as his assistant director.
I expect that the agency believes that there is no one in the White House
or DHS that is going to tell them No. Dont do this, Bier said. And
without an effective check in the administration we are going to see arrests
being made without any regard to prioritization.
Trump has yet to nominate a political director to lead ICE. In fact, all
three immigration agencies under Homeland Security ICE, Customs and Border
Protection and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services are currently
implementing Trumps agenda while being led by career staff.
Homan has so far served as a vocal supporter of Trumps ramped up
immigration enforcement. Last week, he even made an appearance at a White
House press briefing.
Why do you think we got 11 million to 12 million people in this country
[illegally] now? Homan asked White House reporters. Because there has been
this notion that if you get by the Border Patrol, if you get in the United
States, if you have a U.S. citizen kid, then no one is looking for you. But
those days are over.
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