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Dear John,
We analyzed the data—and found that ICE failed to live up to its own guidelines on immigration enforcement priorities.
“Enforcement priorities” are nothing new. Both Democratic and Republican administrations have set their own guidelines to determine which immigrants should be a priority for apprehension and removal. The Biden administration directed ICE officers to focus on people deemed national security, border security, or public safety threats.
But newly analyzed government data from 2021 exposes the discrepancy between ICE’s actions and its own guidelines. The information—released in a new interactive report by the American Immigration Council and our partners Immigrant Legal Resource Center and Mijente Support Committee—highlights the importance of data collection and calls for greater oversight of ICE's enforcement activities.
The data demonstrates that ICE agents took enforcement actions against thousands of people who did not fall under the enforcement priority categories, instead labeling them under a “other” priority category that was not defined in the guidelines.
Some of the report’s highlights include:
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Actions taken under the “other” category accounted for approximately one-third of all enforcement activities.
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ICE supervisors approved officers’ requests to take enforcement actions against individuals who were not a priority under the guidelines roughly 90% of the time.
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Places like New York City and Chicago exhibited higher shares of enforcement actions falling under the “other” priority.
Considering these findings and the Supreme Court’s recent decision allowing DHS to reinstitute its enforcement priorities, the Biden administration should carefully examine how ICE executes these guidelines and how to implement humane and generous prosecutorial discretion going forward.
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Sincerely,
Raul Pinto
Senior Staff Attorney
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