New ICE Guidelines Refocus Agency on Safety Threats as Border Expulsions Continue

The Joe Biden administration recently published new guidelines on which undocumented immigrants should be prioritized for arrest, giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents broad discretion to decide who poses threats to public safety and national security and directing immigration officers to focus on each person rather than categories of specific offenses, reports the New York Times. Such considerations include the seriousness of a past offense, what kind of harm it caused and whether a firearm was involved. Under the guidelines, agents should also consider “advanced or tender age” as a mitigating factor.

Other considerations include evaluating what arresting and eventually deporting someone would have on the person’s family. The new arrest priorities would largely exclude the noncitizens to whom lawmakers had hoped to extend permanent residency, including young adults who arrived in the country as children, as well as farm and health care workers. The new priorities will take effect in 60 days. And for the first 90 days they are in place, enforcement decisions will be subject to “rigorous review.”  Meanwhile, Reuters reports that a U.S. appeals court has ruled that the Biden administration can continue expelling migrant families caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border under the Title 42 COVID-19 pandemic order while a lawsuit challenging the policy proceeds. The administration has said the Title 42 policy remains necessary to limit the spread of the coronavirus, although it has not provided scientific data to support that rationale. The judge’s order only applies to families and not to single adults.