Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Thursday that immigration officers would no longer be allowed to detain and deport migrants from the United States based solely on the fact that they are undocumented.
Mayorkas released a memo and sent it to immigration and border agency officials in which he detailed new guidelines. The changes would direct Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to focus on arresting and deporting immigrants who pose a threat to both national and border security and public safety.
New Immigrant Arrest and Deportation Guidelines
The list of people that would be arrested based on the new guidelines includes people who are suspects of terrorism or espionage, ones who have committed serious crimes, and migrants who have illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border after Nov. 1, 2020.
Mayorkas' new guidelines for immigration officers require a case-by-case assessment of migrants to determine whether or not they fall under the threatening category. The recent changes would also prevent ICE officers from arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants.
The affected group of individuals has long been considered to be "contributing members" of the United States community. They continued to work as faith leaders, farmworkers, and frontline healthcare workers in the country, CNBC reported.
The new guidelines would also prevent officers from detaining immigrants whose status is revealed by "unscrupulous employers" but only if they have not committed a major crime. Mayorkas' new guidelines will take effect on Nov. 29 as the official said that the affected individuals in the United States have been in the country for generations and have contributed to the well-being of the nation.
Mayorkas' new guidelines also gave ICE employees more discretion to determine which immigrants to deport compared to previous guidelines. Back then, supervisors were needed to sign off on some deportations to ensure that rules were being followed.
The announcement also comes as United States President Joe Biden continues to receive criticism for his administration's handling of the migrant surge at the southern border. Authorities recorded more than one million illegal immigrants that have been encountered by border patrol agents this year, Fox News reported.
Humanitarian Crisis at Southern Border
Many believe that the situation has caused a humanitarian crisis at the border as several law enforcement agencies continue to be understaffed and are struggling to house and process the migrants. Many Republican lawmakers have attacked Biden and called for his resignation over the crisis.
In recent weeks, the Biden administration has expelled about 5,000 Haitian immigrants who crossed the southern border. On Thursday, a federal appeals court in Washington cleared the administration to continue expelling families under Title 42.
But Mayorkas' new guidelines were made based on the reality that the United States federal government is not realistically able to go after all people in the country without legal status. He said that agencies should not try to because they have been here for years.
However, advocates for strict immigration have criticized the new guidelines, arguing they were a top-down approach. They also argued that the new rules precluded low-level arrests that could result in investigative leads into bigger cases or act as a deterrent to illegal immigration, the Associated Press reported.
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