Obama administration eases stance on deportations

Obama administration eases stance on deportations

By Alfonso Chardy | Miami Herald


In a new and more lenient policy, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has instructed the agency's legal office to stop the deportation proceedings of foreign nationals who may now be eligible for a green card.

South Florida immigration attorneys and activists said the move is the first solid evidence of more tolerance by ICE toward some foreign nationals facing removal to their homelands.

Affected are possibly tens of thousands who are married or related to a U.S. citizen or a legal resident who has filed a petition for them. The immigrants who will benefit must also not have a criminal conviction.

In unveiling the change, ICE assistant secretary John Morton said the agency will soon drop deportation proceedings against those now eligible under the new guidelines.

"Where there is an underlying application or petition and ICE determines . . . that a non-detained individual appears eligible for relief from removal, {its attorneys} should promptly move to dismiss proceedings,'' Morton wrote in an Aug. 20 memo to the agency's principal legal adviser and the head of enforcement and removal operations.

"Good for John Morton and ICE,'' said Cheryl Little, executive director of Miami-based Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC), who obtained the memo and gave a copy to El Nuevo Herald. "This is the kind of reform we need. Targeting those who intend to do harm while expediting the cases of law-abiding immigrants is the best use of ICE's precious resources and will save taxpayers money.''

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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/08/27/99735/obama-administration-eases-stance.html