Immigration Reform 2014: DHS Head Jeh Johnson Weighing End To Deportations Of Undocumented Immigrants Without Serious Criminal Record

The Associated Press reported on Monday that Jeh Johnson, head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), may recommend a change in immigration-enforcement policies which would extend protection from deportation to undocumented immigrants without a record of serious crime. Johnson is currently carrying out a review of DHS policies at the behest of President Barack Obama, who has come under increasing pressure from immigrant- and Latino-advocacy groups in recent months as the odds that immigration reform legislation could pass this year looks more and more unlikely.

Two sources – former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) head John Sandweg and an anonymous immigrant advocate who had discussed the possible revision with the Obama administration – confirmed that Johnson was weighing that option. If the president approves the recommendation, two main categories of people would likely be taken off of ICE’s priority list for apprehension and deportation: immigrants who re-entered the country illegally after having been previously caught and deported, and fugitives from immigration proceedings. As the AP notes, the change would refocus priorities toward recent illegal entrants and those who have been convicted of crimes other than immigration violations.

Through February, of the 36,434 people to be deported thus far in fiscal year 2014, 28,424 were charged with immigration-related offenses, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), which obtains ICE data on immigration through Freedom of Information Act requests. And in fiscal year 2013, over half of all cases going through the nation’s immigration courts were for “entry without inspection”. But the changes would still cover a significantly smaller part of the estimated 11.7 million undocumented immigrants living in the US than immigrant advocates would like. Earlier this month, 27 Democrats on the Congressional Hispanic Caucus sent Johnson a memo asking him to extend protection from deportation to those who would gain legal status under a bipartisan reform bill passed by the Senate this past summer – an estimated 8 million people.