Republican Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and James Lankford (R-OK) sent a letter to US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Majorcas urging him to end the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “discretion prosecution” policy .
In April, ICE’s Office of General Counsel (OPLA) sent the agency a memo giving agency employees a “prosecution discretion” to enforce immigration laws on certain immigrants that the agency sees as an immediate threat.
The OPLA memorandum is based on Mayorcas’ September memorandum, which asked immigration officials to make an “individual assessment of whether someone threatened.”
As Andrew R. Arthur of the Center for Migration Studies explains, the OPLA note is “an important directive for ICE attorneys to handle cases that did not apply to the previous note.”
Arthur continues:
in your note [ICE Principal Legal Advisor Kerry] Doyle has instructed ICE attorneys – the people you pay to represent you in immigration court – to review their pending cases and determine if they are a “priority” for action under the Mallorca memorandum. “
But last month, US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Judge Drew Tipton nullified Mallorcas’ memorandum.
Senators argued that the OPLA directive should be repealed because the federal judge repealed Mallorcas’ main memorandum.
OPLA ICE is run by Kerry E. Doyle, a former career lawyer and frequent critic of the agency.
Grasley said:
Secretary of State Mallorcas and the Department of Homeland Security have a duty to fully and honestly enforce our immigration laws. This note from ICE General Counsel is misleading and represents another attempt by the Biden administration designed to severely undermine the proper enforcement of our country’s immigration laws. Given the federal court’s recent decision to repeal the September 30th Secretary of Mallorcas memorandum, we should know that DHS will soon rescind this OPLA policy memorandum and begin doing its job and enforcing our laws. Otherwise, the illegal immigration crisis caused by this administration’s irresponsible policies will worsen.
Grassley and Lankford have asked Majorca for additional information about an expiration date for the OPLA memorandum and the agency’s use of the prosecution decision-making process.
Source: Breitbart
