Under the Obama administration, undocumented immigrants convicted of serious crimes were the priority for removal. Now, immigration agents, customs officers and border patrol agents have been directed to remove anyone convicted of any criminal offense.
That includes people convicted of fraud in any official matter before a governmental agency and people who “have abused any program related to receipt of public benefits.”
In the so-called guidance documents released on Tuesday, the department is directed to begin the process of hiring 10,000 new immigration and customs agents, expanding the number of detention facilities and creating an office within Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help families of those killed by undocumented immigrants.
I am sure lawsuits are coming, as they should.
About the only part I can see that is at all good news:
The officials also made clear that nothing in the directives would change the program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which provides work permits and deportation protection for the young people commonly referred to as Dreamers.
Some math:
Let’s assume 1,000,000 deportation cases, and unimaginable number. If we assume 8 hours of investigation for each case, 4 hours of defense attorney time, and 1 hour of court time it will require about 8,200 new lawyers alone.
In 2012 the Federal Government arrested about 200,000. So the case load we are talking about is FIVE TIMES that which the Government brought in 2012.
