ICE Has Began Asking Courts to Deport Some Illegal Immigrants in the DACA Program

According to CNN, Jeff Sessions’ decision in Matter of Castro-Tum in 2018, to revoke immigration judges and Immigration Appeals’ authority to temporarily close cases without deciding them has opened the door to having previously closed cases reopened. ICE is making requests to have some cases reopened. So far it is recorded that three states have started the process, Arizona, Nevada, and Missouri. 

Many who have had received notice that their cases have been put back on the calendar are under DACA. In a Statment from Paige Hues Spokeswoman for ICE stated, ICE is required under Session’s May 2018 decision “to reopen approximately 350,000 administratively closed cases so they are litigated to completion.”

DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) is currently in the hands of the  Supreme Court. The Oral arguments were heard on November 12 and now it is up to the judges to come to their decision on whether or not President Trump’s decision to end DACA was constitutional or not.  

Excerpt from WREG Memphis below:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun asking immigration courts to deport some young adult immigrants who have remained in the U.S. under a program known as DACA.

“DACA recipients, while they’re supposed to be protected, we’re seeing they are actually being targeted in some cases,” Jose Munoz said.

Immigrant rights advocate Jose Munoz said several young people, known as “Dreamers” arrived in the country illegally as children. Later in the story, it goes to say:

This is all happening as the supreme court is considering the fate of the DACA program.

Some DACA opponents applaud the fact that ICE is going after Dreamers. They believe it means the Trump administration expects a favorable ruling from the high court.

“I think they think they’re going to win,” James Carafano said. “And I think what they’re doing now is prepping.”

James Carafano is with the Conservative Heritage Foundation.

It will be telling to see if these deportation requests increase and what happens when DACA is ultimately decided in the supreme court. President Trump has a base that is largely against illegal immigration and is facing re-election in less than a year. Immigration, legal and illegal has had a large effect on the political landscape, and Democrats know that in addition to making immigrant’s rights issues politicized, immigrants from Central America and Mexico are more likely to vote Democrat. This isn’t a major talking point by either party but is likely something that Democrats think about when pushing for open borders, (many of them) and other mass immigration policies.