Published August 22, 2017

 

According to a recent U.S. Department of Justice report, since the time Donald Trump took office this year, the number of immigrants ordered removed from the U.S. increased 28% compared to numbers from a similar period last year. 

From February 1 to July 31, 2017, 49,983 unauthorized immigrants were ordered removed, compared to last year’s number of 39,113. Taking into account the additional 7,086 undocumented immigrants who agreed to voluntarily depart the U.S., the total number of  removal and voluntary departure orders entered this year comes to 57,069. The total number of removal and voluntary departure orders entered for the same period last year was 43,595.

The increase in removals compared to last year may very well be attributable to the January 25, 2017 Trump executive order requiring more aggressive immigration law enforcement.  This executive order also authorized the hiring of 10,000 more immigration officers, the withholding of federal funding for sanctuary cities and the re-implementation of Secure Communities, a  controversial program granting local communities authority to check the fingerprints of detained individuals against databases maintained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Also chronicled in the recent Department of Justice report was the hiring of 54 new immigration judges as well as the deployment of 100+ current immigration judges to Department of Homeland Security detention facilities across the U.S.   The deployment of this corp of judges led to the entry of departure or removal orders against undocumented immigrants in 90 percent of the cases presented before them.

In a separate initiative, in light of the massive 600,000 case backlog facing the immigration court system, the U.S.’ chief immigration judge issued a warning to immigration judges across the U.S. against routinely continuing cases without good cause or clear legal basis.

 

PUBLISHED August 22, 2017– “IMMIGRATION LAW FORUM” Copyright © 2017, By Law Offices of Richard Hanus, Chicago, Illinois