On September 30, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued the long-awaited new set of enforcement priorities, entitled “Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Laws”. The guidelines, which will go into effect on November 29, 2021, will replace the February 18 interim enforcement priorities memo issued to U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as Initial interim guidelines issued on January 20, 2021.
The new memo applies to ICE, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and begins with affirming the basis for DHS’s authority to exercise prosecutorial discretion.
What the September 30 Enforcement Guidance Covers
While the new memo makes some meaningful changes from the previous iterations of the enforcement priorities memos, it still embraces the framework of prioritizing groups of people for enforcement, rather than identifying groups of people to prioritize for protection, as many advocates have called for.
by Prozco®