Back in 2014, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a memorandum
that established certain priorities for all immigration enforcement, including
deportation. More specifically, DHS announced its intention to direct
its resources toward removing immigrants that constituted a threat to
public safety, national security, and border security, rather than on
immigrants without legal status who have lived in the U.S. for years without
committing any crimes. Likewise, DHS indicated that certain categories
of vulnerable people should not be detained unless they were subject to
mandatory detention or other extraordinary circumstances. Historically,
DHS has classified lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) immigrants
as one of those especially vulnerable populations. Nonetheless, data that the
Center for American Progress
obtained from DHS indicates that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
agents opted to detain a greater number of LGBT immigrants in 2015 than
in the year prior to the announcement of the new areas of focus by DHS,
thus effectively ignoring those articulated priorities. In 2014, ICE detained
75% of all LGBT immigrants who expressed fear of detention based on their
LGBT status, and released 25% on community supervision. However, in 2015,
ICE detained 90% of all of these LGBT immigrants, and released only 10%
on community supervision. ICE makes detention determinations using a Risk
Classification Assessment (RCA), which is a tool that takes into account
DHS priorities. According to ICE, the RCA should not recommend the detention
of immigrants who have a special vulnerability and are not subject to
mandatory detention. The prevailing DHS policy is that immigrants with
a special vulnerability should generally be released until their hearings
on community supervision, and that ICE supervisors are required to justify
any decision to detain these individuals. Nonetheless, a 2015 report from
the DHS Office of Inspector General showed that in 2012 and 2013, the
RCA tool often failed to identify immigrants as especially vulnerable,
and even when the tool did identify these individuals, ICE officers frequently
overrode these recommendations. At
Landerholm Immigration, A.P.C., we care about you and your family, and want to help you preserve your
home in the United States. We focus our law practice solely on deportation
defense cases, which allows us to expend all of our efforts in standing
up for the rights of those who are facing potential deportation. Our California
deportation defense lawyers know how to gather persuasive evidence to
support your case and we know all of the procedural ins and outs of the
U.S. deportation system. Allow us to handle your deportation case by contacting
us today to schedule your
legal consultation.
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