OC Immigration Attorney

Immigration officials announced Tuesday a new public advocate tasked with tackling questions and complaints about immigration law-enforcement policies.

The Obama administration appointed Immigration and Customs Enforcement Senior Adviser Andrew Lorenzen-Strait to serve as the point person for inquiries from people – including U.S. citizens and people who are in the country illegally and in deportation proceedings.

“We want the public to know that they have a representative at this agency whose sole duty is to ensure their voice is heard and their interests are recognized, and I’m confident Andrew will serve the community well in this capacity,” ICE Director John Morton said in a written statement.

The announcement quickly drew fire from some GOP leaders.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) criticized the move, saying the appointment of an “in-house lobbyist for illegal immigrants” would cost taxpayers more money.

“It’s outrageous that the Obama administration has appointed a taxpayer-funded activist for illegal and criminal immigrants who are detained or ordered deported,” Smith said in a written statement. “The administration all too often acts more like a lobbying firm for illegal immigrants than as an advocate for the American people.”

As part of the Obama administration’s ongoing commitment to prioritizing the removal of criminal aliens and egregious immigration law violators, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today announced the results of a seven-day national “Cross Check” enforcement operation-which led to the arrest of more than 2,900 convicted criminal aliens.

“The results of this targeted enforcement operation underscore ICE’s ongoing commitment and focus on the arrest and removal of convicted criminal aliens and those that game our nation’s immigration system,” said ICE Director John Morton. “Because of the tireless efforts and teamwork of ICE officers and agents in tracking down at large criminal aliens and fugitives, there are 2,901 fewer criminal aliens in our neighborhoods across the country.”

This seven-day operation, the largest of its kind, involved the collaboration of more than 1,900 ICE officers and agents from all of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations’ (ERO) 24 field offices, as well as coordination with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners throughout the United States. Arrests occurred in all 50 states and four U.S. territories.

If you or a loved one is in removal proceedings in immigration court, contact The Nunez Firm to schedule a free consultation. Managing attorney Jay Nunez routinely represents alien respondents in Los Angeles immigration court.

On June 17, 2011, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton issued two significant memoranda on the use of prosecutorial discretion in immigration matters.  Prosecutorial discretion refers to the agency’s authority to not enforce immigration laws against certain individuals and groups through deportation or removal proceedings.

The Morton Memo calls on ICE attorneys and employees to exercise prosecutorial discretion and refrain from pursuing noncitizens with close family, educational, military, or other ties in the U.S. Instead, the memo instructed them to invest the agency’s resources for people who pose a threat to public safety or national security. It also articulates the expectations for and responsibilities of ICE personnel when exercising their discretion.

Two Premises for Prosecutorial Discretion
There are two historical basis for the use of prosecutorial discretion. First, it provided a framework to use the agency’s limited financial resources wisely. ICE only has the resources to remove 400,000 aliens per year, less than four percent of the illegal alien population in the United States. Therefore, ICE policy requires priority categories of individuals ICE seeks to target for arrest and removal. Priority 1 includes aliens who pose a danger to national security or a risk to public safety. Priority 2 includes recent illegal entrants. Priority 3 includes aliens who are fugitives or otherwise obstruct immigration controls.

Secondly, it represented a compassionate and humanitarian use of law-enforcement tools. Humanitarian factors for prosecutorial discretion include older age, existence of medical or mental health condition, the presence of family in the U.S., and positive contributions to the United States.

Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion
Prosecutorial discretion can be exercised in various forms by any branch of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the enforcement process. For example, an office may decide not to bring charges against someone who is out of status and is otherwise in the U.S. working. After an arrest, an officer may decide not to detain a person who does not appear to be a danger or a flight risk. A DHS attorney many decide against serving the individual and the court with a Notice to Appear because he appears to be eligible for a family benefit with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). It is to be noted that, regardless of the way prosecutorial discretion is exercised, the act itself does not give any substantive benefit or right of action to the noncitizen.

Factors for Prosecutorial Discretion
The Morton Memo on Prosecutorial Discretion clarifies the standard for prosecutorial discretion in five ways. First, it builds upon pre-existing policies on the subject. Second, it allows ICE trial attorneys to review charging decisions by DHS employees and dismiss low-priority cases. Third, it directly addresses the role of ICE attorneys during a removal proceeding and virtues of exercising discretion in those proceedings. Fourth, it encourages ICE employees and attorneys to consider prosecutorial discretion without waiting for the alien or alien’s counsel to request favorable exercise of discretion.

Finally, the Morton Memo offers a list of 19 factors pertaining to humanitarian circumstances that should trigger favorable exercise of prosecutorial discretion, such as persons’ pursuit of education in the U.S., criminal history, immigration history, possible threat to national security or public safety, etc. Likely, the Morton Memo identifies classes or persons who warrant “particular care” when making prosecutorial decisions, such as veterans and members of U.S. armed forces, long-time lawful permanent residents, minors and the elderly, pregnant or nursing women, victims of domestic violence, handicapped individuals, etc.

If you or a loved one are in immigration court proceedings, contact The Nunez Firm to schedule a free consultation. Managing attorney Jay Nunez will personally meet with you to discuss your options and whether we might be able to help you.

Calling it “an incredibly serious situation,” a Homeland Security official said Wednesday DHS will do everything it can to find those responsible for the death of a U.S. immigration agent in Mexico – Jaime J. Zapata.

Gunmen opened fire Tuesday on two agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as they drove between Mexico City and Monterrey, killing one and wounding the other.

“This is an incredibly serious situation and it is one that has the full attention of all corners of this department,” a Homeland Security official told CNN. “We are going to do everything we possibly can in conjunction with the Mexican government, to bring these perpetrators to justice.”

The Mexican federal attorney general’s office dispatched investigators from its anti-organized crime division to the scene of the shooting.

Zapata “lost his life in service to our country,” ICE Director John Morton said in a statement to employees.

The shooting took place about 23 miles north of downtown Mexico City at approximately 3 p.m. ET, an ICE official said. The official spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity because the case is still under investigation.

The Department of Homeland Security is reviewing thousands of pending immigration cases and moving to dismiss those filed against suspected illegal immigrants who have no serious criminal records.

According to Richard Rocha, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, the review is part of the agency’s broader, nationwide strategy to prioritize the deportations of illegal immigrants who pose a threat to national security and public safety. Rocha declined to provide further details.

Critics assailed the plan as another sign that the Obama administration is trying to create a kind of backdoor “amnesty” program. An immigration attorney who was briefed on the effort by Homeland Security’s deputy chief counsel in Houston, said DHS confirmed that it’s reviewing cases nationwide, though not yet to the pace of the local office. However, they are following general guidelines that allow for the dismissal of cases for defendants who have been in the country for two or more years and have no felony convictions. In some instances, defendants can have one misdemeanor conviction, but it cannot involve a DWI, family violence or sexual crime.

Opponents of illegal immigration were critical of the dismissals. However, immigrants who have had their cases terminated are frequently left in limbo, and are not granted any form of legal status. These illegal immigrants still have no work permits and Social Security Numbers. ICE is not going to proceed with their removal from the United States. However, they are still here illegally.

In a June 30 memo, ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton outlined the agency’s priorities, saying it had the capacity to remove about 400,000 illegal immigrants annually. The memo outlines priorities for the detention and removal system, putting criminals and threats to national security at the top of the list. Recently, ICE officials provided a copy of a new policy memo from Morton dated Aug. 20 that instructs government attorneys to review the court cases of people with pending applications to adjust status based on their relation to a U.S. citizen. Morton estimates in the memo that the effort could affect up to 17,000 cases.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that wants attention more for its complex customs and terrorism investigations than its immigration duties, has gone on a media blitz as of late.

ICE chief John Morton has popped up all over the place, from making public appearances around the country.  Along with Morton’s visibility, the agency has also tried to raise its profile in other ways, with an organizational shake-up and press releases on everything from child pornography busts to its efforts to crackdown on human rights violators seeking safe haven in the United States.

Under the Obama administration ICE officials have stated that one of their priorities is to reform how the agency detains immigrants. In late July, the agency unveiled a new online system to find detained immigrants after previous reports of detainees moved around the country.

Last week the agency posted on its web site a month-by-month report of deportations. ICE has also tweaked its site, with prominent displays of the statistics, the new detainee finder system and its list of reforms.

However, according to immigration advocates, the agency might take another look at some of the displays. The image used for the online detainee locator system of a little girl and an adult woman searching for someone in the computer screen.  According to Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, a pro-immigration group that advocates for reform, the photo on the web site was a cruel joke rather than an image enhancer since ICE has separated more families than any other federal agency by far.

ICE replaced the image for the online detainee locator system with an image of a computer keyboard recently. Furthermore, an ICE spokesman said the agency would review the web site.